A special election will be held on a date to be designated by House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-28) to fill the remainder of Hackett’s term which ends in January 2017.
That’s probably not going to increase its standing among my readers.
The ticket is all incumbent: Colleen Morrone of Concord, John McBlain of Aldan, and Mike Culp of Springfield, who is serving out the remainder of new state Sen. Tom McGarrigle’s term.
Union endorsement aside, I’m going to have no problem hitting the button for them this November. Complain all you can about the state and federal Republicans but Delco is one of the better run Pennsylvania counties.
Pete points out that Delaware County has an unemployment rate lower than the national average and is experiencing job growth. The county Republicans deserve undeniable credit for this as it was the policies of the other party that almost sent it into the tank.
The ticket is unopposed in the May 19 primary and may very well be unopposed in the General Election on Nov. 3. For the record, the Dems should be allowed on the ballot.
Bob Guzzardi, whose case was cited by Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge James Proud in removing three Democrats from the Delaware County Council Primary ballot.
Jack Evans of Norwood, Richard Womack of Darby Township, and Christine Reuther of Wallingford were removed from the Delaware County Council (Pa) Democrat primary ballot for failing to file the proper report with the proper bureaucrat.
The three filed statements of financial disclosure with the Board of Elections but failed to provide a copy to the County Clerk.
Common Pleas Court Judge James Proud said because of that “no ballot for you”.
Proud cited the infamous Bob Guzzardi ruling handed down May 20 in which the state Supreme Court ruled that Guzzardi could not appear on last spring’s Republican gubernatorial primary ballot because his paperwork was not perfect.
What the Democrats did was a technical mistake. As they are accused of neither acquiring enough signatures nor presenting false ones, it is obvious that enough people want them on the ballot for there to be an election.
As they filed statements of financial interest publicly, they obviously were not trying to avoid scrutiny.
The proper recourse would have been for Proud to tell Evans et al to file the documents correctly and in the case of Evans to sign it and get it notarized. The only deadline that should be immutable is the presentation of signatures. Technical stuff should always take a backseat to democracy.
Delaware County Daily Times editor Phil Heron, however, notes that only 250 write-in signatures are needed for them to get on the ballot. You don’t think there are 250 Democrats in this county willing to do that? You don’t think this is going to make the Democrats more motivated and not less, and nominal Republicans more suspicious of those now holding power hence sympathetic to the Dems.
Don’t assume party loyalty is the force it once was. See Scott Wagner.
The people really are getting sick of sneakiness.
Bob Guzzardi did not have a prayer of beating Tom Corbett last spring. Because Corbett played dirty, though, he burned all his bridges with the anti-corruption activists supporting Guzzardi and went from having a tiny, smidgen of a chance to win the general to none.
Vote fraud is bad and must be punished severely. Technical errors are not vote fraud. It’s sickly ironic that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which shot down a sensible photo voter ID law upholds these banana republic games.
For the record, County Democratic Party Chairman David Landau has vowed to appeal to the higher courts.
