Tea Party Asks Stalking Horse To Quit In Pa

How Jim Schneller got on the ballot isn’t helping him with Tea Party groups to which he claims to have allied himself.

Schneller is an independent candidate for the Pennsylvania 7th Congressional District seat being vacated by Democrat Joe Sestak. The major party candidates in the race are Republican  Pat Meehan, who is a former Delaware County district attorney and federal prosecutor, and Democrat Bryan Lentz, who represents the 161st District in the State House.

It has been learned that about 4,800 of the approximately 7,900 signatures Schneller acquired to get on the ballot were collected by Lentz volunteers including Swarthmore Democrat Chairwoman Colleen Guiney, Nicholas Allred of the Swarthmore College Democrats andSpringfield activist Rocco Polidoro.

Since 4,200 names were needed, Schneller would have been over a thousand shy on his own.

Polidoro, btw,
says he has cooled substantially on the Democrat Party in the last year
but is still behind Lentz.

Anyway, the action appears likely to backfire on Lentz. The publicity concerning the  act has made him look old-school schlocky and the district’s Tea Party groups are disassociating themselves from Schneller.

A letter sent to Schneller from the Independence Hall Tea Party Association signed by Don Adams and The Delaware County Patriots expresses concern and disappointment with his 3rd party candidacy and asks that he withdraw his candidacy “which Bryan Lentz feels will benefit his campaign.”

FWIW, Schneller says he hadn’t realized that it was Lentz supporters circulating his petitions.