Third Base Politics has learned that Tom Zawistowski, president of the We The People Convention, has just announced that Donald Allen and Kelly Kohls are not going forward with their primary campaign against Governor Kasich. From his emailed announcement:
I regret to inform you that I have learned that Dr. Don Allen and Dr. Kelly Kohls will not be going forward with a run for Governor and Lt. Governor for a variety of reasons. A big reason, from my perspective, is that our groups did not have enough opportunity to meet Dr. Allen, in large part because of the weather last Saturday, but also because of the short time frame. This is causing many groups to be hesitant, appropriately, because they have not had an opportunity to have some of their important questions answered. Combine that with our signature gathering efforts being hampered by many groups having to cancel critical meetings because of the cold, and recent concerns about election laws, and it just isn’t coming together the way anyone would have liked.
There is an old saying that my grandfather taught me which says, “If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it.” It is unfair to Dr. Allen and Dr. Kohls to go forward if they are not completely confident in that decision, which they are not for their own reasons. It is also not prudent for our movement to move forward when we will not even have the opportunity to meet the key candidate we would hope to support before they get on the ballot. We appreciate the efforts of both Dr. Allen and Dr. Kohls, but if they do not want to proceed, we unfortunately must agree that it is the best course of action for our movement at this time as well.
This announcement comes 4 days after proclaiming in another email that they had collected nearly 1000 signatures at a statewide meeting this past Saturday.
A highlight of the day was the opportunity for everyone to meet and question Dr. Don Allen and Kelly Kohls. After Dr. Allen’s speech he was greeted with a standing ovation from the crowd. He then stayed and made sure that he talked to everyone in attendance and answered every question they wanted to ask.
Despite having so many group leaders who could not make the trip today, we still had nearly 1,000 signatures turned in.
With this announcement, and the fact that Todd Portune on the Democratic side only has 7 more days to collect 1000 signatures and still doesn’t have a running mate yet, it appears that neither Kasich nor Ed Fitzgerald will face an opponent in the primary.
