Green Party candidate thrown off ballot
2006-09-26
Source: New York Times
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rss feedA state judge on Monday said the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate would be removed from the ballot because the party did not have enough valid signatures in its nominating petitions, winnowing a three-way race down to a contest between Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and Democratic state Treasurer Bob Casey.
Carl Romanelli's candidacy was backed by Santorum, who hoped that Romanelli could siphon votes from Casey. State Democrats challenged Romanelli's bid.
Commonwealth Court Judge James R. Kelley ruled that Romanelli, a railroad industry consultant from Wilkes-Barre, was 8,931 signatures shy of 67,070 he needed to qualify as a minor-party candidate.
Clifford Levine, an attorney for the Democrats, said the ruling "allows there to be a head-to-head matchup between Bob Casey and Rick Santorum, which is what obviously, in our view, Sen. Santorum was trying to avoid."
Romanelli did not attend Monday's hearing. In a statement issued later in the day, he said his fate would ultimately depend on the state Supreme Court determining how many signatures he needed to get on the ballot.
"The Democrats have a long way to go to get me off the ballot,"Romanelli said.
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