By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
Supporters of Democrat Bryan Lentz’s campaign withdrew their effort Friday to knock Republican congressional candidate Pat Meehan off the ballot.
Meehan still faces an investigation from the attorney general into alleged fraudulent signatures on his ballot, which began in March when the Republican turned over the potentially improperly collected documents to local authorities.
But the dismissal could cause a sigh of relief in the campaign, which has been rocked in recent weeks by the allegations of wrongdoing in a process that should have been a given for one of the top Republican congressional recruits nationwide.
Meehan, in a statement, blasted the challenge as frivolous and “unable to meet even the bare minimum threshold” to knock him off the ballot. Lentz, he said, is trying distract voters’ from the campaign’s real issues.
“These incidents demonstrate that Bryan Lentz is all too willing to play the same political games that have turned off voters and created gridlock in Washington, DC,” he said. “At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed and we should be talking about creating new jobs, Bryan Lentz has shown he is more interested in mudslinging than substance.”
He added that he supported the attorney general’s investigation into possible fraudulent signatures on his petitions “to the extent crimes were committed.”
The Lentz campaign has used the news of alleged wrongdoing in the petition process to call Meehan a product of the corrupt Delaware County GOP machine. In a statement, Campaign Manager Vincent Rongione reiterated that Meehan’s petitions still contained “forgeries, false affidavits and other improper signatures.”
“The Meehan campaign has cavalierly dismissed the extensive and inappropriate actions of the GOP political machine that supports him and has failed to offer any explanation as to the serious improprieties that took place under Meehan’s watch,” he said. “We continue to believe that the citizens of the 7th Congressional District deserve a thorough explanation and a complete and independent criminal investigation to address these significant issues.”
Both men are trying to replace departing incumbent Joe Sestak, who is running in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary against Arlen Specter. Meehan and Lentz are each considered some of their respective party’s best recruits, and the race is expected to among the country’s most competitive.
Tags: Bryan Lentz, Bryan Lentz for congress, Pat Meehan, Pat Meehan for Congress
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Anyone interested in looking at a sample of the evidence of wholesale fraud by the Delaware County Republican machine should go to the slideshow at the Lentz campaign website and see for themselves: http://votelentz.com/images/stories/meehanpetitions.pdf The assertion that this whole scandal is the work of one “overzealous” volunteer is just hogwash. If Corbett does not indict anyone, we will all know that the fix is in.
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