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Beth Hegedus's Blog

Beth Hegedus's Blog

 Suburban Snapshot

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What’s going on in the 13th?

All three Republican candidates in the 13th Congressional District—Josh Quinter, Brian Haughton and Dee Adcock—have found their nominating petitions subjected to legal challenge.

And interestingly, all three challenges come from the same three people, according to public records: Sharon Boddy and Charles Gramlich of Abington Township, along with former Bryn Athyn Mayor Hyland Johns.

I realize that nominating petitions are challenged all the time, but here’s the skinny: If you check back in the Congressional Record from Jan. 13, you will see incumbent Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-13) mentioning Johns in very favorable terms. I haven’t been able to find anything of consequence on Boddy or Gramlich. The law firm of Flaster-Greenberg is handling these three petition challenges, and one attorney on the case is Abbe Fletman, who has is also listed as having counseled the Obama-Biden ticket in Philadelphia.

Let’s see if you can wrap this with fish. This is an absolute page out of the Obama playbook. In 1996, when Obama won his state Senate seat, he ran unopposed in the primary after having the other Democrats knocked off the ballot. His 2006 race for U.S. Senate was similar.

I can’t prove it definitely, but I think that what’s happening in the 13th is that Schwartz is going for victory right out of the gate. It’s amazing that the political process of running for office has come down to eliminating democracy, and almost all opposition.

What is this country becoming?

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March 19, 2010 at 9:53 am

--Beth Hegedus

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comments [12] | post a comment

  1. Barry H.

    Mar 19th, 2010

    What about the 8th district?

  2. Mrs. Silence Dogood

    Mar 19th, 2010

    What is this country becoming? How about a country fed up with corruption and willful ignorance of impropriety. When candidates and their campaigns learn how to obey the rules set forth on the nomination petition, they will not get challenged. It’s not about being a political juggernaut, which Rep. Schwartz most certainly is, but about forcing those who seek to serve to play by the same rules.

  3. Change Ballot accsess Laws

    Mar 19th, 2010

    Its Time to make it easier to get on the Ballot But The Greedy Power Brokers Dont want you to have Freedom of Choice on the ballot Its Amazing when Allyson wants you to have Freedom of choice to Murder The baby In Your Womb Oncew you get out of The Womdb she does not want you to have a Choice Allyson ( Hanoi Jane Fonda ) Schwartz Give the People the same Choice to Vote as You want them to Have To Murder Their Babies Drop The Challenges

  4. BB

    Mar 19th, 2010

    We need to do a lot more than simply change ballot access law in this state. We need to CHANGE THE ENTIRE CULTURE of Pa. politics, including ending the two party system so that EVERYBODY that’s registered to vote can indeed vote in the primaries. Term limits at all levels of gov. would also help. Pa. taxpayers/voters are sick of all this BS. We need to CHANGE THE CULTURE. Please get this message out folks at PA2010.com. Thanks.

  5. 13th voter

    Mar 19th, 2010

    Well said Beth. There is no question this is nonsense. This is the definition of the arrogance of power. What is Allyson Schwartz afraid of … oh yeah, having to actually answer to her contituents.

  6. Oldhead

    Mar 20th, 2010

    Can any of these guys beats Schwartz anyway?

  7. WW

    Mar 20th, 2010

    Why are none of the candidates claiming they have the required 1000 signatures? Why are they focussed on the meddling and not defending their petitions?

    Sounds like they laughed off the campaign laws. The arrogance is they want us to ignore the lack of effort, lack of basic political experience, and lack of connections to the community that gets these simple tasks done.

    We should be embarassed by each of them…

  8. michael livingston

    Mar 21st, 2010

    I agree that this is bad politics, but haven’t the Republicans invited this by failing to come up with a really serious candidate in what until recently was a toss-up district?

  9. PA Politics is a disgrace

    Mar 22nd, 2010

    Allyson Schwartz should be recalled as our Representative, based on our constitutional right NOT to have the government force us to buy anything. Did she take an oath to uphold the Constitution? Let us get a petition going to recall her, for failure to adhere to the principals of the Constitution. The challenge should be withdrawn, conflict of interest.

  10. tired_of_dem_hacks

    Apr 5th, 2010

    “Why are none of the candidates claiming they have the required 1000 signatures? Why are they focussed on the meddling and not defending their petitions?” Every candidate has over 1,000 signatures – Dee Adock has over 2,400 – well in excess. The larger point is, petition challenges are supposed to come from within the party, and not be directed by an incumbent from the other party. And it is amazing to see Schwartz toadies trying to distract from that reality.

  11. anon

    May 19th, 2010

    Great job here – a bunch of shaky assertions based on vague allusions to evidence that seems to have come from a simple glance at a google search result. I suppose pa2010.com has no such thing as quality control?

  12. Garmin Rino 530HCx

    Nov 16th, 2011

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