Mark Fisher, the Tea Party nominee for governor, greets attendees at the Massachusetts Republican state convention in Boston. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
BOSTON (AP) — Republican Mark Fisher, who fell just short of the support needed from his party to earn a spot on the primary ballot, signaled Tuesday that he was not quite ready to throw in the towel on his campaign for governor.
Fisher was looking to raise money for a possible challenge to the vote at Saturday’s GOP state convention, according to a posting on the campaign’s Facebook page.
“We are in the process of setting up a legal defense fund for Mark Fisher 2014 to challenge the convention results. There are no limits to what you can contribute to this fund,” the posting read.
Charlie Baker, the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nominee, easily won the endorsement of the convention on Saturday.
Party officials said Fisher, a Shrewsbury business and tea party member, received 14.765 percent of the delegate vote, leaving him just shy of the 15 percent required under party rules to force a September primary against Baker.
The party counted blank votes toward the total used to calculate the percentages. Had the blanks not been included, Fisher’s percentage would have qualified him for the ballot.
A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts GOP said the party stood by the convention outcome and would not comment on any actions taken by Fisher.
Fisher’s campaign did not immediately return a call seeking elaboration on the posting or what type of challenge was being considered.
Fisher indicated to The Associated Press after the convention Saturday that lack of money would make it difficult to mount any kind of challenge.
