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Meehan camp brings ballot challenge against Schneller (Updated)
Two supporters of Republican Pat Meehan on Monday filed a ballot challenge against independent candidate Jim Schneller, trying to keep him off the ballot in the 7th Congressional District after Democrats helped put him there.
The challenge, filed late Monday afternoon in Commonwealth Court, came after Meehan’s campaign spent a week reviewing Schneller’s nominating petitions. The campaign quickly confirmed that it is behind the challenge filed by Patricia Wechsler and Ernest Angelos. The suit against Schneller will be handled by former Commonwealth Court Judge James Colins, the same Cozen O’Connor attorney who successfully defended Meehan’s campaign when Democratic opponent Bryan Lentz challenged his spot on the primary ballot earlier this year. At the time, Meehan’s campaign decried the ballot challenge as a waste of taxpayer resources.
In a statement, Meehan campaign manager Bryan Kendro noted that Schneller, a conservative who has dabbled in the birther movement and could conceivably pull votes from Meehan, would not have had enough signatures without help from Lentz’s supporters.
“Bryan Lentz is attempting to use dirty and unethical political tricks to manipulate this election for his own personal gain,” Kendro said. “Our campaign has exposed Lentz’s disturbing plan and will continue to combat Lentz and the [Democratic] operatives who were involved in the deception and misrepresentation of a sham candidacy.”
But the involvement of Lentz’s campaign is likely not sufficient legal ground for setting aside Schneller’s nominating petitions, meaning that Meehan’s campaign will have to prove that a large enough proportion of the signatures collected by both Schneller and Democrats are ineligible.
Lentz’s campaign said “we hope voters will take note of the ongoing fight between Pat Meehan and Jim Schneller for the mantle of the Tea Party and its far-right agenda. In the meantime, Bryan Lentz will continue to focus on job creation and economic development in the 7th District.”
Schneller said he hadn’t yet seen the complaint.
“I can’t comment until I see what they filed,” Schneller said.
August 9, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Tags: Bryan Lentz, Jim Schneller, PA-7, Pat Meehan
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Anonymous
Aug 9th, 2010
…and thus the great dilemma of the GOP today. Once you stop feeding the tiger raw, red meat, the tiger will either eat you or be fed by your enemies and trained to eat you later…
Lex Brown
Aug 9th, 2010
Not quite following, but I certainly agree that ravenous tigers are bad news. Personally I raise all my carnivorous pets weighing more than a grown man on rice and tofu.
Jeff
Aug 9th, 2010
This quote from the above story is typical Republican lies, kind of funny. Not a chance in hell he gets kicked off. “The suit against Schenller will be handled by former Commonwealth Court Judge James Colins, the same Cozen O’Connor attorney who successfully defended Meehan’s campaign when Democratic opponent Bryan Lentz challenged his spot on the primary ballot earlier this year. At the time, Meehan’s campaign decried the ballot challenge as a waste of taxpayer resources.”
sick of it all
Aug 9th, 2010
Very funny that meehan is trying to limit peoples choices…hypocritical…guess he afraid of people having more choices….like when he forced wench out of the r primary and pressured dawn stensland into not running…guess patty boy thinks he should be annointed…what’s he so afraid of?
Huh?
Aug 9th, 2010
As I recall Welch thought he had a better shot in the 6th, and he would have won too if Gerlach had not come back. No one forced him out.
As far as limiting choices, it was Lentz who forced two female candidates, including an African American off the Democratic ballot in May because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to muster the support to beat them.
I guess with all of his tax votes and anti-legislature mood, he had a right to be scared of not being able to fight his way out of the primary, much less a paper bag.
Anonymous
Aug 9th, 2010
Hard to understand what Meehan is afraid of. Schneller is likely to get less than 1% of the vote, and very few Meehan voters are going to vote for him. Probably better off to take the high road here than give Schneller any more attention. If he survives the challenge he’ll get more publicity and Meehan may lose a few more votes. No upside to this.
debt to high
Aug 10th, 2010
It won’t matter Lentz is tied to Pelosi and Sestak. Both are clueless and adding to our debt and ignoring our 2nd amendment. They are a disgrace to our Constitution!
Anonymous
Aug 10th, 2010
Is it at all surprising that James Collins, a Democrat, from a firm who’s chairman, Steve Cozen, is a Democrat continues to represent Meehan?
bill healy
Aug 10th, 2010
republicans have run up the debt too high
Not often I get a chance to communicate with a Constitutional Scholar like yourself, can you explain how Pelosi and Sestak are ignoring our 2nd Amendment rights?
Rick
Aug 10th, 2010
Hey Anonymous, what is more interesting is that Cozen was at Lentz’s fundraiser with the VP.Can someone track whether Cozen and O’Connor are billing Meehan for this and his prior fraudulent petition defense? If there are no bills, or reduced bills, or no payment by Meehan at all, are they reported as in kind contributions for legal services? This firm doesn’t come cheap and they don’t write off their bills.
Julia
Aug 12th, 2010
I love when campaigns burn their money on silly petition challenges.
PA2010.com: Schneller wants in on the debate | Politics PA
Aug 26th, 2010
[...] as he fights a legal challenge seeking to keep him off the ballot, independent Jim Schneller is letting it be known that he should have a chance to participate in [...]