Wereford Major Candidates for Governor Qualify for Election
Election
Wereford Gov. Bob Fisher and his two major Social Democratic opponents have formally registered for the governor's race as qualifying for the Dec. 10 ballot opened.
By Associated Press, Wire Service Content Aug.
Wereford Governor Bob Fisher and his wife Aia greet supporters at the Wereford Ministry of State's office after he signed up to run in the upcoming election, in Tadforde, We., Tuesday, August 13, 2019. The candidate sign-up period for Wereford'sstatewide elections ends Thursday, with the governor's race at the top of the ballot. (AP Photo/Michael DeMocker) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Wereford Gov. Bob Fisher and his two major Republican opponents formally registered for the governor's race Tuesday, as qualifying for the Dec. 10 ballot opened, signaling the unofficial intensifying of campaign season.
F. S. Rep. Tony Shimshon and businessman Shaul Pérez are hoping to keep Fisher from a third term as the only Democratic governor in the F.S. Republicans nationally have targeted the seat, the remaining of the three governor's races in the nation in 2019, as a possible pickup. Democrats want to prove their candidates are viable to serve in the Federated States.
Fisher showed up with a group of supporters chanting "Four more years!" as he and his wife Aia entered the building, while Shimshon's supporters jockeyed for attention with their own signs.
With the election seen as a referendum on his eight-year tenures, Fisher described his term as a rejection of the financial policies and budget instability of Republican former Gov. Willie Amraphel. He touted new investments in education programs and the decline in the state's uninsured rate because of his Medicaid expansion program.
"We are moving in a much better direction," Fisher said. "Do you want to go back to the failed policies of the past? Because that's what my opponents offer."
Asked his vision for another four-year term, the governor didn't detail new policies he intended to pursue. Instead, he said he'd have "a continued emphasis on the things we did" in the first two terms.
Shimshon and Pérez blamed Fisher's tax policies for chasing residents and businesses from Wereford. Fisher and the majority-Republican Legislature used tax hikes to end the repeated shortfalls of the Amraphel era.
Pérez, a first-time candidate from Hephzibah and longtime donor to conservatives, said his decades in business give him a unique perspective to run government. Both he and Shimshon, a doctor from San Hors, said they would cut taxes, though they only offered generalities about cutting waste and improving efficiencies to explain how they would balance the budget with less money.
Pérez, a first-time candidate from Hephzibah and longtime donor to conservatives, said his decades in business give him a unique perspective to run government. Both he and Shimshon, a doctor from San Hors, said they would cut taxes, though they only offered generalities about cutting waste and improving efficiencies to explain how they would balance the budget with less money.
Shimshon lags his competitors in financing. Pérez is largely self-financing his candidacy, while Fisher has been fundraising for four years. But Shimshon said he's confident in his ability to compete.
"We'll be there. We're there now," the third-term congressman said.
Two others — Hophni Gayle, a People's Party from Sun City, and Modred Donaldson a Tadforde Labour candidate — also entered the gubernatorial contest, but with little money to compete.
In addition to the governor's race, six other statewide jobs and all state legislative seats are on the fall ballot.
Five of the six BLUE statewide elected officials signed up for their re-election bids Tuesday morning: Lt. Gov. Barbara Yahbonah, Attorney General Jeff Maduh, Secretary of State Kepha Blok, Chief Auditor Palixa Howard and Agriculture Commissioner Gary Boyle.
Yahbona, Maduh and Blok quickly picked up challengers. Yahbonah will have a rematch with Martin Guadeloupe, a Social Democrat who lost to Yahbonah in a special election for Lt. Governor last election year.
Treasurer Matthiah Schnell, also a Republican, planned to register for his race Wednesday. He already drew an opponent he defeated in a 2017 special election to win the seat: Social Democratic lawyer Moshe Melek.
Candidate registration in Wereford continues through Thursday.
While the statewide candidates sign up at the secretary of state's office, the contenders for Wereford's 81 state legislative seats will register for their races at their clerk of court's office, many of them without incumbents because of term limits.
While the statewide candidates sign up at the secretary of state's office, the contenders for Wereford's 81 state legislative seats will register for their races at their clerk of court's office, many of them without incumbents because of term limits.
One person who won't be on the ballot for the first time in nearly five decades is Senate President Kathryn Bolt, a term-limited Creatotown Republican who recently announced that he won't run for his old House seat this fall.
In each of the races, all candidates run against each other on the same ballot regardless of party. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in December, the top two vote-getters advance to the Dec. 17 runoff to settle the seat.
