Lentz on Good Day Philadelphia

State Rep. Bryan Lentz, now running for Congress in the 7th district, was on "Good Day Philadelphia" recently. The main topic was a bill that would close the "Florida loophole," which allows people who are denied a gun permit in Pennsylvania to get a legal permit from other states (often Florida). Fox has a video available and a good article that summarizes Lentz's remarks on the subject.

At the end of the interview the hosts broach the subject of a third party candidate in the 7th district. This is a paraphrase of the questions and answers; it is not intended as a transcript. As always, I apologize in advance for any errors or misconceptions.

Q: Several stories around the country about 3rd party candidates. Did you have campaign workers volunteer to help get a 3rd party candidate on the ballot?

BL: Jim Schneller has been running for office for over a year now. The people who helped him are public record. The [Republican Pat] Meehan campaign has tried to say there is a mystery about who collected the signatures and there was an attempt to conceal who got signatures. The people who collected the signatures are part of the public record. Now Pat Meehan is arguing over who is the tea party candidate. I’m not the tea party candidate.

Q: Out of 8K signatures for Schneller, over 5k were collected by your people. Won't Schneller siphon votes away from Meehan, improving your chances of winning?

BL: The fact is that Schneller and Meehan have to fight over tea party vote. There’s nothing for me to admit. None of the people who collected signatures worked for me, none are paid by my campaign. Schneller got 4K signatures n his own. He participated in debate in February. [blogger's note: I attended the candidate's debate in February and wrote up a post on it; Schneller, Lentz and another caniddate talekd about foreign policy issues.] He's been running over a year now. Jim Schneller is his own man. In other states 3rd party candidates were asked to run; Schneller is running on his own. I’m happy to have them argue over who is the tea party candidate.