Freitas takes responsibility for missing another paperwork filing deadline

Truncated from The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Freitas and Bob Good, who defeated Rep. Denver Riggleman on Saturday for the 5th District GOP nomination, missed last week’s deadline to file a form with the Department of Elections to qualify for the November ballot, an agency spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

“I’m as frustrated and as furious as anybody and we are working to make the corrections that need to be made within the campaign,” Freitas said Monday. “I take responsibility for it. Part of taking personal responsibility is making the necessary corrections and so that’s what we’re doing.

Freitas and Good have since filed the documents and the state elections board will decide whether to grant an extension to the deadline, said Andrea Gaines, the director of community relations and compliance support for the Department of Elections.

While Republicans have decided who will run in the general election in the 5th District, that’s yet to be decided in the 7th District. Freitas is among six Republican candidates looking to run against Spanberger. That GOP nominating convention is set for July 18.

Appearing on conservative radio host John Fredericks’ show Monday morning, Freitas said he was “furious” when he found out his campaign had missed the deadline but added that it was a different situation than last year.

“It’s not like last time, where all of a sudden the party hadn’t submitted paperwork, the campaign was late on its paperwork and so we had to go through this battle,” he said. “This is not the same dynamic here.”

He added later: “There was one aspect of this campaign that was incredibly important. The person that was hired to take care of that part failed in their duties. Yes, I failed to double-check on that.”

Freitas said the person responsible for submitting the paperwork has resigned.