I was wondering how the Delco GOP were going to finesse this disaster, I thought they could maybe have a “special petition” day for GOP Congrssional candidates who can’t follow the law.What Pa. needs is an aggressive US attourney to root out all that Republican corruption that was ignored by the previous administration.

“Unlike Bryan Lentz, Pat Meehan believes the dedicated public servants and investigators in the Attorney Generals office are more than capable of fully investigating this issue.”

Really? This sounds like a new belief by Meehan who seems to have lived his political life under the auspices of GOP influences shielding him, and then him returning the favor.

As for who should investigate…. I doubt the Lentz campaign will be satisfied with anyone other than Vince Rongione himself conducting the investigation.

Similarly, I’m sure Meehan would love to have Pete “The Stooge” Peterson in charge. But considering Pete’s apparent skill level, he’d probably make it worse for Meehan. He should probably stick to ‘spokesperson’ where he could do less damage. It’s harder to shoot yourself in the foot, when your foot is in your mouth.

David-
I take offense at your comment about Lentz’s preferences for this investigation.
Lentz is calling for an impartial investigation.
Should those who contribute to each other and endorse each other be in charge of investigating each other’s campaign practices?
I don’t think so.
Perhaps Green would be willing to disclose his reason for recusing himself.
If your comment was offhanded, I would appreciate if you could reword it more carefully.
Cheers.

Green probably signed those petitions too.

Colleen-
Geez, lighten up. I put a next to the comment about Vince.

If you want to get serious, I think the Lentz campaign is wrong-headed going after the Dem primary challengers to get them kicked off the ballot. If his bid to preempt Meehan fails, he’s going to need every Dem vote in the Fall. Those Dem candidates and their supporters will have no incentive to help Bryan at the ballot box, if they feel cheated out of their chance to participate in May.

How does p!ssing off the black community and the women’s vote help him?

If Lentz is as smart as he’s been in the past, he’ll drop the suit against his fellow Dems and concentrate on the GOP and helping out St. Leg candidates in his district.

Green, like Meehan before him, is a political puppet of the Delco GOP. If he recused himself of every conflicted case, he’s never make it out the front door in the morning.

Thanks for your reply, David.
I admit, I missed the smile in your post.

I appreciate that you disagree with Bryan’s petition challenges on the D side. Though I don’t know exactly why he chose to pursue the D challenges, I will hazard a guess here. As you probably know, Bryan was a ‘jump master’ early in his Army career. That means he had responsibility for verifying that each airman had a working parachute. He took responsibility for those men’s lives as they jumped to their missions. If you do your job properly, soldiers are able to complete their mission. If you cut corners or forget to check the rule book, those in your charge can die.
Our Congressman or woman will have similar, serious responsibilities on a much larger scale.

The filing of petitions is a small hurdle that each candidate must cross to have his or her name on the ballot. On the R side, I believe the issue is one of duplicity at more than one level. The scope of wrongdoing will hopefully be aired in court. Even if I were in agreement with Meehan’s philosophy, I would likely have issue with the integrity of either him or his advisors come November.

On the D side, the issue is one of competence. I believe that each Dem challenger tried their best to fulfill this task with the best team they could muster. Touey has stated to the press that she and two teen volunteers spent weekends at Acme markets speaking to voters. As I believe you said yourself, this is a lousy way to get valid Dem signatures without having street lists to verify
I have not seen public comment from Conner about her petition drive, so I can’t comment here on the procss of her petition drive. I believe there must be some problem with her data, or I doubt the Lentz campaign would have any reason to spend the time and energy to file a futile challenge.

My final thought here is that I see no benefit to the Dems for you to continue to claim that Bryan will alienate other voters, which is why I respectfully ask you to stop speaking for other Dems. They are welcome to visit this blog and express their own indignation. Personally, if I were pinning my hopes on a candidate that could not pass a petition challenge, I doubt they would be particularly effective against the opposition, whether it be at the ballot box or in the House of Representatives.

Thank you for reading and considering my point of view.

I forgot to mention – Bryan has spent considerable time and energy helping State Legislative candidates. If you want to know what he has done, just ask them!
Cheers

“But the spokesman, Kevin Harley, told local newspapers that the office was not investigating Meehan, but rather those who circulated nominating petitions on his behalf.”

Wow, we are already starting off with a bias or pre-judgment. I thought impartial investigators go where the evidence leads. I guess not this AG or his office, if it leads to Meehan. Congrats on being fair and impartial from the start. LOL

“A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office did not immediately comment on the conflict-of-interest question Tuesday morning.”

Of course not. Corbett is far too busy suing the federal governement for the right of the people not to have health care.

Colleen-
Your “jump man” analogy is completely ridiculous. Bryan isn’t checking their “parachutes” to help them complete their mission, he’s trying to scrub them from the mission because he wants 100% of the vote instead of 95%.

I know Bryan has spent time helping St. Leg candidates (far more than Sestak ever did). But, still, if he’s got resources to waste on this, it’s resources that aren’t going elsewhere that they are more needed.

I have spoken to a few Dems in the black community, who are Lentz supporters, who are not happy about what Bryan is doing. They are concerned, as well, that Bryan will alienate black voters and women. I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a bad idea.

You are mistaken that the key issue is how effective they would be “particularly effective against the opposition”. That isn’t the point of their long shot candidacies. They are representing issues and points of views that they feel are not getting enough attention. They are there to make a point and have their voices heard.

The percentage of votes they get in the primary should serve as a useful lesson to Bryan about issues that he isn’t sufficiently addressing. By taking his primary opponents off the ballot, he’s effectively silencing their supporters in a way that is not going to endear him to them.

Taking them off the ballot won’t change the outcome in May, but it absolutely won’t help in the slightest from June through November.

We are still at a huge Rep vs Dem registration disadvantage in this district. Counting upon Meehan and company’s blazing incompetence to self-destruct, ignores the need for party unity after the Primary.

We saw how the 2007 County Council race destroyed party unity. We saw how the 2009 race worked to restore it and set a new standard.

This a rare mistake by Lentz, but one he still has a week to correct by dropping the matter against his fellow Dems.

David-
It’s not an analogy.
It’s a metaphor.
I understand again that you disagree. No need to discuss this further in this forum.

Please check your inbox. I would like to continue this conversation offline.

Thank you.

All I got in my Inbox today was a Lentz fundraising letter from you (but with the main Info@Votelentz.com email as “your” address).

Lentz is making a public decision to knock Dems off the ballot, who are not a credible threat to his Primary campaign, but whose support could be critical in a close General election. All the justifications and rationalizations in the world aren’t going to make it a good policy for much needed local Dem unity.

If these were a couple of DINOs planted by the GOP, it would be different.

David-
I will be happy to ask the Lentz camapign for your current address. I replied to the last email I got from you regarding votebuilder updates.
Will try again.
CG

Colleen-
I think you mean VoterWeb, not VoteBuilder.

The Lentz campaign is using one of my dummy email addresses they got from the Obama campaign. Don’t you that one. I use that to track what campaigns share their lists with other campaigns.

I sent you an email with the address you can use for me.

Right is right and I HAVE DONE THE WHOLE PETITION DRIVE IN SNOW AND RAIN. IT IS NOT EASY. If you think it may be try it sometime.

Lentz did what all candidates do. You look at the petition and if it looks wrong, you just challenge.
That my friends is called politics. I believe he did the right thing. Why spend the money to beat nobody’s. One in particular that was put in by Lentz. She is a carpet bagger from MA and works in Sestak office. You don’t have to be smart to see through this thing. Sestak knows he is going to lose big time and he saw a way to have a seat holder.
If any petition is wrong, it MUST be tossed. It can’t be taken lightly and Meehan should be tossed and the AG is as corrupt as the day is long. We need a special prosecutor to see what is right and what is wrong. I have even spoken to some active Republicans that want a special prosecutor. Just what is wrong with that ?
As far as the one candidate that was thrown off she didn’t have a chance and her people let her down. The law is the law if you don’t like it, then work to change it. One went to a super markets and got garbage. You must use a street list from the county. My friend needed only 10 signatures and spent all day Sunday getting them in his pct. Not a lot of Dems at home on that day so it was hard for him. If you want to play in the big leagues you better do everything right.

The folks that were challanged should have double checked each and every name and address, but the were lazy and just wanted to cheat. Very simple to understand !

Sorry, David – I should have said voterweb….
I never thought to ask the Lentz office for your address…. but hope you like the blast that went out.
Other than a minor typo that was missed, I mean every word of that message. If anyone reading here missed it, please feel to contact the campaign at the address David listed above.
Thanks.

Lana-
Sestak is a pompous ass and a poor campaigner, but he’s not so stupid and foolish to consider his “friend from Mass” as a seat holder. He didn’t even endorse her.

If Conner and Touey have mostly GOP signatures, I could see your point. But, petition challenges also focus on subjective things like handwriting legibility and minor technicalities like spelling. For a small campaign like these, it’s really about draining their limited resources and tying them up in court. Lentz already has the endorsements and doesn’t need this to win.

Bryan is not REQUIRED to challenge these petitions. It’s unnecessary, unless he’s got really good cause to believe they were purposefully engaged in deceptive practices (like the Meehan campaign with allegedly forged signatures) and if they were legitimate threats (like Meehan). It comes off as spiteful.

So, yes it may be “politics” as you say, but isn’t Bryan running to be better than mere “politics”?

It think “cheat” is less accurate than foolish for the supermarket method. However, that shows how little of a threat she really is.

It’s a hollow victory if Bryan’s the only one on the ballot.

Colleen-
You are really pulling out all the stops to refer to an email address I posted for the campaign.

David-
I will take that as a compliment.
Hoping you got my email.
Cheers-
CG