Former US attorney Michael Sullivan drops off signatures, seeking GOP Senate primary ballot spot

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Former US attorney Michael Sullivan, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the special election for US Senate, personally dropped off petition signatures today at the clerk’s office in Abington.

Democratic and Republican candidates seeking to run in their respective primaries must collect 10,000 voter signatures. Those signatures must be turned into election officials in the state’s cities and towns by 5 p.m. today.

The election officials have until Monday to certify the signatures. The campaigns must then pick up the signatures and bring them to the secretary of state’s office by 5 p.m. next Wednesday, where they will be counted, said Brian McNiff, a spokesman for Secretary of State William F. Galvin.

Sullivan has collected more than 20,000 signatures and believes that he has more than the 10,000 certified signatures required, the Globe reports today. A three-way Republican primary race is emerging between Sullivan of Abington, who also served as a state representative and as Plymouth district attorney; state Representative Daniel Winslow of Norfolk; and Cohasset businessman Gabriel Gomez.

Gomez is expected to kick off his campaign Thursday with events in Quincy, Shrewsbury, and West Springfield.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, US Representatives Edward J. Markey and Stephen F. Lynch are facing off.