t was another remarkable press conference for the renegade Republican.
''Against all odds,'' US Senate candidate Jack E. Robinson declared yesterday, he gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot but had to pay $100,000 out of his own pocket to get them.
He lashed out in a Parker House function room, calling for the resignation of Brian Cresta, the chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. Robinson alleged that Cresta's subordinates tried to sabotage his campaign, but he offered no proof to substantiate the accusations.
And he said he has spoken to dozens of angry would-be candidates around Massachusetts who say the state GOP did not support them, either, but he would not name names.
Furthermore, he said, he will file his financial disclosure forms with the Ethics Commission by Monday's deadline, but said he will not publicly release his tax returns, despite earlier promises that he would do so. He said he now believes he has already been more forthcoming than his opponent, Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Robinson said he had collected 13,000 ''raw,'' or unvetted signatures; 10,000 verified signatures are needed to qualify for the ballot. Robinson collected most of the 13,000 within the previous 48 hours, he said, and many were the result of paid gatherers working for Powderhouse Political Consultants, a Somerville-based group that charged $100,000 for the work.
''Another outrage,'' the self-proclaimed millionaire said, charging that the state party's lack of support - and possible obstructionist behavior - was unethical and forced him to direct cash toward a signature drive when the money could have been spent on political advertising.
Powderhouse collected 7,000 signatures in 30 days, enough to get Robinson over the hump. Powderhouse charged him $14.29 every time pen was put to paper.
Still, Robinson did not rely solely on hired hands. Half of the 20 signature collectors were volunteers. He, too, spent the last few days traversing heavily Republican towns, standing outside grocery stores, and lingering outside Salisbury Town Meeting asking people to sign his nominating papers.
He also sent out 45,000 pieces of direct mail to registered Republicans and independents, mostly in Worcester, Hampden, Dukes, and Barnstable counties.
Robinson said he delivered signatures to 230 city and town clerks, who have until May 31 to verify the collection sheets. And he asserts that those signatures will have an 80 percent certification rate, far higher than average.
After the filing deadline Tuesday, Secretary of State William F. Galvin said city and town clerks had verified only 5,122 of Robinson's signatures.
''But we delivered several thousand after he made that computation,'' Robinson said, calling the whole procedure a ''daunting task.''
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the number of verified signatures had gone up to 7,705. ''I think it's still very much up in the air,'' Galvin said, adding that some clerks called yesterday to say they had just received more signatures, one day past the deadline. Those papers were discounted.
Despite his difficulties in launching the campaign, or perhaps because of them, Robinson also attacked the state GOP, which pulled its support after he published an 11-page report that detailed a drunk-driving arrest and that disputed incidents with former girlfriends and a copyright infringement charge.
''I am calling on Brian Cresta to immediately tender his resignation,'' Robinson said, adding that the state party is ''one of the worst in the nation'' and in shambles because it is not producing candidates to run against Democrats. ''It's a horrible position we find ourselves. in ... The party is being managed with frightening incompetence'' by ''straw men.''
He alleged that Cresta's underlings in the executive office had put out the word among GOP volunteers not to help Robinson collect signatures, although he would not offer proof that that happened. ''We're not going to engage in surmise or conjecture,'' he said.
Cresta did not return calls seeking comment, leaving the party's executive director, John Brockelman, to respond.
''He doesn't have time to respond to these sad, sad charges,'' Brockelman said. ''I think it's sad that Mr. Robinson has chosen to lash out at others because his campaign has been lacking credibility and support.''
