http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/124077179.html?page=1<snip>
Democrats say they're abandoning their strategy to run "placeholder" candidates in July 12 recall primary races after "fake" Democrats, recruited by the Republican Party, had filed their final paperwork in all six races by Friday.
The filings assure that there will likely be Democratic primaries in all six recall races involving Republican Senate incumbents.
Meanwhile, new figures from election clerks in those districts raise the estimated cost to taxpayers of the primaries to more than $460,000.
Friday was the deadline for candidates to file financial disclosure forms in the recall elections. If any candidate failed to file such a form, they wouldn't be on the July 12 primary ballot. Democrats had recruited placeholder candidates in three of those races in case the fake Democrats failed to file. But that didn't happen.
"The goal of the placeholder candidacies was to create an insurance policy against further Republican attempts to exploit the recall election schedule through dirty tricks and cynical plots," party Chairman Mike Tate said in a statement from the party. The insurance apparently wasn't necessary.
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