Evan Bayh fallout: Tamyra D'Ippolito falls short of needed signatures

Doug Flutie she is not. The Hotline is reporting that the 'Hail Mary' attempt by a little known café owner to get on the Democratic ballot to replace outgoing Indiana Senator Evan Bayh has failed.

Tamyra D'Ippolito talked tough while appearing on FOX News this morning, saying that she had enough signatures to file a petition of nomination. In order to hit the mark she needed at least 500 signatures in every House District.

She was just a little short in one district though – like 497 signatures short.

"An official in Marion Co. (IN) tells Hotline OnCall d'Ippolito turned in just 3 signatures in the 7th CD, the district with the highest percentage of Dem voters," Reid Wilson writes. "The noon deadline has passed, meaning d'Ippolito failed to meet the requirements to get on the ballot. She would have been required to submit 4,500 signatures, including at least 500 from each of the state's 9 districts."

So what's that mean? If, in fact, these numbers are accurate, D'Ippolito is toast, and the Democratic state central committee will select the nominee.

That is, unless, for some strange reason, Democrats listen to Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. So concerned is he that the Democrats get a fair deal is that he's urging Bayh to extend the filing deadline.

"Doing so would remove any appearance of unfair gamesmanship by the Democrats while affirming their belief that voters, and not party bosses, should be the final arbiters of elections," he said in a statement.

And who said there's no bi-partisanship in Washington?

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Hey, if you ever came up 497 votes shy of getting on a ballot, we'd give it to you – if you've followed us on Twitter, that is.