Thursday, March 18, 2010

Problems with Meehan's Petitions

Pat Meehan, Republican candidate for the 7th congressional district, is facing a challenge to his ballot petitions. Dan Hirschhorn over at pa2010 has the details in "Ballot challenge, spearheaded by Lentz." Another problem is that the Delaware County District Attorney, who would normally preside over the petition challenge, who Meehan asked to investigate, is a contributor to Meehan's campaign (also reporter at pa2010).

7 comments:

Portia said...

The Commonwealth Court considers challenges to Congressional candidates. The Delaware County prosecutor's office isn't involved.

Portia said...

Prosecutors don't preside over petition challenges (they're brought by individuals registered in the candidate's party, not by the government). And challenges to Congressional candidates aren't, in any case, handled at the county level -- they're filed with the Commonwealth Court, a state level court that has original jurisdiction in certain election cases.

AboveAvgJane said...

Portia,

thanks. post corrected.

Anonymous said...

I love that Meehan blasted Lentz for challenging him but acknowledged that his own campaign had reviewed Lentz's signatures -- presumably with the possibility of challenge in mind. So did petition challenges become a despicable tactic only when Meehan realized Lentz had too many good signatures to make a challenge feasible?

Anonymous said...

Can anyone tell me how I can check Meehans nomination petition to see if my name was put on it falsely? I know one of the people working for him and I would not put it past him to do this.

Portia said...

you could try calling Clifford Levine, the lawyer representing the challengers.

AboveAvgJane said...

Anon,

Portia has a good idea. The Lentz campaign (www.votelentz.com) might also have some helpful ideas.