ith his candidacy hanging in the balance, Jack E. Robinson, the Republican who wants to unseat US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, is asking state election officials to assign a State Police guard to watch over his nomination papers.
''Given the high level of public interest in the nomination process surrounding my candidacy, I am concerned about the security of my nomination papers once they are filed with the Elections Division,'' Robinson wrote in a letter yesterday to Secretary of State William F. Galvin. Robinson must submit his papers by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Galvin immediately rejected Robinson's request, saying his office is capable of watching over the papers and that there has never been a precedent for assigning police to guard such documents.
''I am not aware of any instances where papers filed with this office have been stolen or altered, and I would respectfully suggest that the State Police need to attend to their principal duty of law enforcement,'' Galvin wrote in a reply.
Robinson, who is struggling to submit the necessary number of signatures to qualify for the GOP ballot, said he wanted the police guard in order to ''ensure the integrity'' of the papers when lawyers and political workers inspect the quality of the signatures.
With what is expected to be a wafer-thin margin of extra signatures, Robinson will probably face challenges to the validity of his signatures. His campaign said he will submit at least 10,250 of the necessary 10,000 certified signatures - a margin that election specialists say leaves him very vulnerable to a challenge.
Both the state Democrats, who want to protect Kennedy's interest, and the Libertarian Party, which wants to give its candidate, Carla Howell, a chance for a one-on-one shot at the senator, have an interest in making sure he can't get the GOP nomination. Independent candidates can qualify with 10,000 signatures, which are due in early August.
Robinson, a businessman who in March told GOP leaders he would put up to $1 million of his own money into this campaign, is the only Republican candidate. When embarrassing revelations about his personal life surfaced shortly after he joined the race, Governor Paul Cellucci and state Republicans backed off their endorsement of his candidacy.
Still, if Robinson does not make the ballot, it will be the first time since senators were first elected directly by voters in 1916 that state Republicans will not field a candidate for the much-coveted US Senate. The 68-year-old Kennedy, who was first elected in 1962, is seeking his seventh term.
Ian Bayne, Robinson's campaign communication director, said Robinson was unavailable to comment about his request to Galvin. ''We do want to work with the secretary,'' Bayne said. ''He's been great and we want to make things easy for him.''
