n a stunning reversal of his political fortune, Republican Jack E. Robinson won approval yesterday from the state's highest court to appear on the September primary ballot for US Senate, and face longtime incumbent Senator Edward M. Kennedy in November.
The justices, in a unanimous ruling, said Secretary of State William F. Galvin erred when he threw out 129 voter signatures Robinson collected because they were not printed on ''exact copies'' of state-issued nomination papers. The back pages of the signature sheets had been copied upside down.
''It's a great day. I never gave up hope,'' said Robinson, whose controversial candidacy has been rejected by Governor Paul Cellucci and state Republican leaders. ''You keep fighting and that's the way you win in this world.''
Robinson described the SJC decision as ''one step for Jack Robinson, one giant leap for the citizens of the Commonwealth.'' He also publicly asked Cellucci to ''let bygones be bygones,'' a gesture that was immediately rejected by state Republican leaders. The governor was out of state and unavailable for comment, but has shown no signs of reconsidering his position.
Galvin had relied on previous rulings that strictly interpreted the state's ''exact copy'' standard, meaning that signature sheets that are circulated must be identical to the state-issued forms, and that any printing errors would eliminate the sheets.
But the court, in a 6-0 decision, said potential signers of Robinson's papers would still fully understand the form, despite the upside-down back pages.
''We reject the secretary's contention that the signers of the papers might have been misled in some significant way because the printed information appeared upside down,'' the court wrote. ''The likelihood of such an occurrence is so slim as to be virtually nonexistent.''
Galvin said he welcomed the decision.
''It returns discretion to this office where it rightfully belongs,'' Galvin said.
The decision gives sudden and unexpected new life to Robinson's lonely crusade to become the GOP Senate nominee. Embarrassing details about his personal life, including a 1985 drunken-driving charge, which was eventually dropped, and the revelation of a restraining order taken out against him by a former girlfriend, prompted Cellucci and the state Republican Party to withdraw their support.
Because he is the only Republican candidate to seek the nomination, the Democrats, with Kennedy's behind-the-scenes guidance and urging, had fought hard and spent considerable money to bar him from the ballot. If they had succeeded, it would have marked the only re-election cycle in his 38-year Senate career in which Kennedy had faced no opposition.
Democratic sources said Kennedy had hoped to avoid a challenge and focus his efforts on helping other Democrats around the country in the fall. Those sources insisted Robinson's presence on the ballot will not change Kennedy's plans.
In an official statement, Kennedy's press secretary Will Keyser said the 68-year-old senator was ''very much looking foward'' to his campaign for a seventh term.
''Like Senator Kennedy has said many times, he runs for the office of the United State senator, not against a candidate,'' Keyser said.
Mark White, executive director of the Democratic State Committee, said the party is ''disappointed'' but added, ''We respect the decision.''
Robinson's campaign appeared to have collapsed last month when the state Ballot Law Commission removed 153 signatures from his nomination papers. Ninety of those signatures were forged, the panel said, and were collected from four particular towns. The panel said Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly should review the case for possible criminal charges.
Along with Galvin's ruling several weeks earlier, Robinson was left 14 shy of the necessary 10,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
In the wake of the panel's ruling, Robinson's three-member campaign staff quit, and he removed the lawyer who argued his case before the commission. Down to what he agreed was his last shot, Robinson, who has spent $200,000 of his own money since March on the signature effort, declared himself a ''one-man band'' as he decided to argue his own case before the SJC.
Still, Robinson faces a formidable task of mounting a serious campaign against Kennedy, who has $4.1 million in his campaign account and, according to polls, is as popular as ever with the Massachusetts electorate.
Robinson, who maintains a home in Jamaica Plain, has said he may spend up to $1 million of his own money. A resident of Greenwich, Conn., and president of Stanford-based National Telecom, he has voted in Massachusetts for the past several years.
Robinson said he plans to take a week's vacation and then attend the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. He said he was invited as a ''special guest of the national Republican Senatorial Committee.''
''I expect to meet with Governor Bush and General (Colin) Powell,'' he said.
Presidential candidate George W. Bush, a close Cellucci ally, refused to endorse Robinson last month, despite Robinson's attendance at a Bush fund-raiser.
Robinson had harsh words for Libertarian Party candidate Carla Howell, who had also challenged his nomination papers at the ballot commission. He said he would fight to bar her from any candidate debates.
''If they tried to kick me off the ballot, let them sit by themselves this fall,'' Robinson said of Howell and her party.
