Katherine Pinner says she's out, again.
Katherine Pinner is taking her name off the ballot, again.
The conspiracy theorist blogger has gone back and forth on whether or not she will be the Republican taking on Sam Page in the race for St. Louis County executive in November.
Pinner maintains a blog on which she describes herself as the daughter of Croatian parents, an author and an innovation consultant. She's compared wearing masks to Satanism and advanced the fringe idea that COVID vaccines contain microchips for tracking purposes.
Her most recent book is Liberté: A Croatian's Search for Freedom. Before that she published Midnight Train, which was also subtitled A Croatian's Search for Freedom.
The previously obscure Pinner pulled an upset against Shamed Dogan in the August 2 primary for the top government job in St. Louis County. Dogan, a state representative from Ballwin who is generally considered a moderate, was the heavy favorite in the race. Pinner, who won by 12 points, has been cagey about the strategy that led her to victory, though according to the Post-Dispatch she had made allusions to some sort of “secret sauce” that she will not elaborate on.
Last Friday, KSDK reported that Pinner was dropping out of the race. The St. Louis County Republican Central Committee said then that they had gotten word from Pinner that she intended to file the necessary paperwork in court to have her name removed from the ballot.
Then on Tuesday, Pinner changed her mind and said she was still in the race. The Post-Dispatch cited a text message she sent to the chair of the county's Republican Central Committee in which she wrote, “I need to uphold my commitment to God, to myself, and to the voters.” She also shared that she was staying in the race in a blog post.
However, today Pinner seems to have reversed course yet again. A court spokesperson confirmed that she filed a request to have her name removed from the November ballot.
Assuming Pinner goes through with removing her name, it becomes an open question who will replace her as the Republican nominee in August.
The Republican director of the county elections board told the Post-Dispatch that Dogan would be ineligible because he lost the primary.
The law potentially barring Dogan from running is referred to as a "sore loser law." Those laws are typically designed to prevent someone who loses their party's nomination from running as an independent or a write-in candidate and therefore siphoning votes away from the person who won the primary.
But if Dogan were to replace Pinner as his party's nominee, he wouldn't be running as an independent or a write-in.
In a brief interview Monday, Dogan told the RFT that lawyers have advised him he's still eligible to be on the ballot in November as the Republican in the county executive race.
That is, assuming Pinner doesn't reverse course yet again.
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