A Democratic candidate for Congress on the South Shore is withdrawing his candidacy following challenges filed by both of his opponents against his campaign filings. One of his opponents is facing similar allegations in a new lawsuit filed by the thirdcandidate.
Garrett Petersen, a Democratic candidate for the state’s Second Congressional District, is suspending his campaign for his party’s nomination amid allegations by his opponents that he received fewer valid signatures than required to appear on the primary ballot.
“I do not want to withdraw from this race, as the fight for the future of our community and our nation is so important, but there is no viable path forward to victory at this time,” Petersen said in a statement. “Once I’ve taken some time to decompress with my family, I will redouble my efforts to get Democrats elected up and down the ballot.”
Petersen added that he urges supporters to back whoever becomes the Democratic nominee for the Second Congressional District.
In Democratic congressional primaries across the state, candidates must collect at least 1,250 signatures during the petitioning period to have their name appear on the June primary ballot. Petersen said he received around 1,270 signatures.
The other two candidates running against Petersen, former Suffolk County executive Patrick Halpin and real estate professional Jessica Murphy, filed separate objections with the State Board of Elections in recent weeks, alleging that up to a few hundred signatures Petersen received came from people either not registered with the Democratic Party or not registered to vote at all.
“My team actually went through and pulled their [the signatories’] voter files,” Murphy said. “He didn’t meet the numbers based on that.”
Petersen said that, statistically, at least some signatories may have provided incorrect information, but given that he received only a few signatures above the minimum threshold, his margin of error was slim.
In addition to filing an objection with the State Board of Elections against Petersen, Halpin's team also filed a complaint and lawsuit against Murphy, the third candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress, over similar signature-fraud allegations.
According to a Suffolk County Supreme Court petition Halpin filed against Murphy, Halpin’s team claims that Murphy’s petition to appear on the June primary ballot “is permeated with fraud.”
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