Ross Pushes For Spot On Democratic Ballot... And Waits

Grace Ross's spot on the Democratic primary ballot for governor isn't certain yet.

Hoping to challenge incumbent Gov. Deval Patrick, she says she submitted more than the 10,000 required signatures to be considered as a candidate by the state Democratic party. But, she added, the signatures she has may not be enough because all signatures have to be checked for validity.

"Whether we're going to get our signatures or not, we'll see how the next few days tell," Ross said. "It was tighter than I hoped it was gonna be."

Successful candidates, Ross said, often collect significantly more signatures than required.

"Depending on your validation rate, you need 13,000 to 15,000 signatures," Ross said, "and I'm not sure at this point whether we made that target or not."

The Worcester resident and Harvard School of Education graduate says it's been easy getting signatures over the last two months, but without a budget to pay signature gatherers it's been a challenge to find volunteers.

"It was many, many thousands of signatures for sure," Ross said, but the need to make up for any validation error could have been more than her volunteers could handle. "I think I've been pretty clear that it's a challenge for those of us who can't just hire a service to make up the difference."

Ross added that such a difficulty creates obstacles for politicians operating on small budgets. "We have to be about regular people again. Not who can, you know, drop $60,000 on getting signatures."

If Ross clears the signature requirement, she'll need 15 percent of delegates' support at the Democratic convention next month to get on the ballot.

This would be Ross's second gubernatorial run after her bid as a green-rainbow candidate in 2006.