It is common practice for Republican and Democratic candidates to challenge the petitions of third-party opposition, decreasing voters’ choices and in turn increasing their own chances of winning the election. This year each and every statewide third-party candidate will be forced to defend their nominating petition signatures in court due to such challenges, this time originating from mostly Republicans, some of whom have accused Democrats of practicing “dirty politics.”
The GOP alleges that the gubernatorial Tea Party candidate John Krupa received help gathering signatures from the Dan Onorato (D) campaign, which incidentally is not against the law. The national organization Tea Party Patriots has also challenged Krupa’s petitions, claiming that the candidate is not affiliated with the Tea Party, as he was originally nominated in March by the Constitution Party.
James Schneller, reportedly an American Congress Party candidate, will defend his petitions in court against the Republican 7th District Representative candidate Patrick Meehan, who says that Democrat Brian Lentz helped him gather signatures as well.
U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak, a Democrat, is challenging Green Party Mel Packer’s petitions. Third-party candidate Tom Lingenfelter’s petitions for the 8th Representative District will be challenged by a group of mostly Republicans. And Republicans are also challenging Libertarian petitions for governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate candidates.
Each time that a worthy third-party candidate is removed from the ballot, voters are denied another choice for representation by the very ones who seek to usurp their support.
For more information on the challenges read “GOP activists in Pa. file 3rd-party challenges,” by Peter Jackson of the Associated Press, published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (8/10/10).
