By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

A petition challenge reportedly filed by a Dan Onorato supporter against Democratic gubernatorial rival Joe Hoeffel has been withdrawn, administrators with the Commonwealth Court said Wednesday.

A review of the petition-challenge list in the court’s Harrisburg offices showed Hoeffel’s nomination had been formally challenged Tuesday but removed a day later. The documents showed Hoeffel’s name had been crossed out.

Even if it had remained, the chances of knocking Hoeffel off the ballot appeared slim. The Montgomery County commissioner said he had filed 7,632 signatures from 33 counties – gubernatorial candidates need to file only 100 signatures from 10 counties and 2,000 total.

The Onorato campaign, in a statement, said one of its supporters was simply doing his due diligence to help the Allegheny County Executive’s run for governor.

“Every competent campaign checks their opponents’ petitions and challenges any questionable ones to defend itself,” said spokesman Brian Herman. “Based on the obvious motive and opportunity for one particular candidate to remove the only other candidate who shares his base, one of my supporters filed a legitimate challenge.

“Since no other challenges were filed as were anticipated, we are pleased that the challenge has been withdrawn and that the candidate field hasn’t changed,” he added.

Auditor General Jack Wagner and state Senator Anthony Williams, whose nominating petitions were not challenged, will join Hoeffel and Onorato on the ballot.

News of Onorato’s challenge to Hoeffel earlier in the day prompted the southeast liberal’s campaign to fire back aggressively at their rival.

“Joe Hoeffel is the best candidate with the best ideas,” said campaign co-manager Lauren Townsend in a statement. “We’ve got the poll numbers to prove it, and Mr. Onorato probably does, too. Dan Onorato has good reason to be scared, and now he has turned desperate. This is a cowardly act. Throughout this campaign Mr. Onorato has tried to bully candidates, and now the bully has blinked.”

Townsend’s rhetoric was some of fieriest yet in what has been an unusually quiet race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination thus far.

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UPDATE: A person familiar with the Onorato campaign told PoliticsPA the challenge was withdrawn after Hoeffel failed to try and knock Williams, from Philadelphia, off the ballot. Onorato, from western Pennsylvania, would seem to have a better chance at winning the Democratic nomination against two southeastern candidates, who would split the region’s vote, instead of just one.

As the race stands now, two of the candiates, Wagner and Onorato, are from the west, and two, Williams and Hoeffel, are from the east.

Tags: Dan Onorato, Dan Onorato for Governor, Joe Hoeffel, Joe Hoeffel for governor

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