{"id":251,"date":"2026-05-13T18:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=251"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:10:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:10:45","slug":"in-a-surprise-gop-endorsed-candidate-for-lieutenant-governor-says-she-didnt-collect-enough-signatures-to-make-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=251","title":{"rendered":"In a surprise, GOP-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor says she didn\u2019t collect enough signatures to make ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anne Brensley, the state Republican Party\u2019s endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, did not collect enough signatures to qualify for the Septemberballot, she said Wednesday \u2014 a failure that would significantly derail her campaign to help lead the GOP ticket this fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Senate again rejects bid to end Iran war, but GOP opposition grows<\/a><\/p>\n

Brensley blamed the shortfall on a consultant she hired to help gather the 10,000 signatures she needed to qualify. The Wayland Republican is accusing Joe Bronske, who also serves as chair of the Weymouth Republican Town Committee, of failing to get thesignatures she paid him to collect. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brensley said Secretary of State William F. Galvin\u2019s office also informed her that local clerks from Scituate, Hanover, and Rockland flagged some of the signatures her campaign submitted, citing forgery concerns. Brensley needed to submit enough signatures to local clerks by May 5 in order to get her name on the ballot.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bronske didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brensley\u2019s failure to make the ballot wouldmark a stunning turn for a candidate who won 56 percent of the vote from delegates at the Massachusetts Republican Party\u2019s nominating convention in Worcester last month. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brensley, an attorney and a former Wayland select board member, said she intends to petition Galvin\u2019s office for additional time to collect the needed signatures. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has nothing to do with whether people would really want [me] as a candidate,\u201d she said Wednesday. \u201cI got over 1,000 people at the convention to vote, and [I\u2019m] the endorsed candidate, right?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Deb O\u2019Malley, a Galvin spokesperson, confirmed that clerks from three cities and towns had reached out with concerns about potential fraudulent signatures submitted on behalf of some candidates. Galvin cannot extend or alter the deadline for signature gathering, O\u2019Malley said, because it is set in law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brensley said she loaned her campaign $17,500 to pay Bronske for his services, though campaign finance covering through April do not show her campaign making any payments to him.Brensley had a little more than $4,000 in her campaign coffers at the end of April, and that she had given her campaign $29,000 of her own money,records show.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two other candidates \u2014 Michael Walsh, a Lynnfield attorney running for attorney general, and Anne Manning Martin, another candidate for lieutenant governor \u2014 had also hired Bronske to collect signatures, campaign finance records show.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walsh \u2014 who paid Bronske\u2019s company, Ancestors\u2019 Trail Genealogy, $20,000 \u2014 did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Visitors to US with World Cup tickets won\u2019t have to pay to enter country, State Department tells AP<\/a><\/p>\n

Jaclyn Corriveau, a spokesperson for Manning Martin, did not address that she had tapped Bronske to help with signature collection, but said she was confident in Manning Martin\u2019s ability to make the ballot. Her campaign paid Bronske\u2019s company at least $5,650 for signature gathering, records show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sorry to hear that any fraudulent activity may have impacted other campaigns,\u201d Corriveau said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Wendy Wakeman, a Republican strategist not involved with any of the campaigns, said candidates effectively have three resources in every campaign: time, money, and volunteers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can make up for money with volunteers; you can make up for volunteers with money. But you can never make up for time,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd Anne Brensley found herself the anointed candidate of the GOP with less than a week to finish obtaining all the signatures. That\u2019s a tough spot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Martin Manning and the third Republican lieutenant governor candidate, Shawn Oliver, Brensley was not running as a ticket with one of the three GOP gubernatorial candidates. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, Mike Minogue, a GOP megadonor and medical device businessman who overwhelmingly nabbed the party\u2019s endorsement for governor, threw his support behind her ahead of the convention. <\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Minogue didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

If she indeed is barred from the ballot,Brensley said she intends to continue her campaign, running as a write-in candidate. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI said that I was on a mission to change a state, and I mean it,\u201d Brensley said. \u201cAnd if I have to run a full blown campaign as a sticker candidate, knowing that I\u2019m at a huge disadvantage for doing that, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more With a friend in Trump, the tobacco industry secures a lucrative win<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anne Brensley blamed the shortfall on a consultant she hired to help gather the 10,000 signatures she needed to qualify for the ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nIn a surprise, GOP-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor says she didn\u2019t collect enough signatures to make ballot - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=251\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In a surprise, GOP-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor says she didn\u2019t collect enough signatures to make ballot - 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