The race for the Democratic nomination in PA’s 6th district is about to get nasty as Mike Parrish looks to challenge Lindy Li’s petition signatures.
Parrish’s campaign lawyer Kevin Greenberg said Li’s petitions are “rife with errors,” with signatures from unregistered voters, voters registered in other districts and even registered Republicans and Independents.
Greenberg said 26-year-old Li only came up with 357 valid signatures after looking through her petitions – well under the “straightforward” 1,000-signature requirement to appear on the primary ballot.
“The objectors believe fairness matters, and the fact that they can successfully challenge 85% of the Li campaign signatures is indicative of that campaign’s inability to properly understand and follow the basic procedures set in place by our Commonwealth,” Greenberg said in a statement.
Li’s campaign hit back with a statement of their own, calling Parrish’s challenge “a desperate attempt to prevent a primary election match-up” and pointing out Parrish’s meager campaign cash balance.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Parrish doesn’t want this campaign to be focused on the issues facing Americans everyday,” Li said in the statement. “PA-6 residents are struggling to pay off their student loan debt, concerned about national security, and disappointed with our elected officials in Washington. If the only thing that Parrish is focused on is kicking me off the ballot, then I seriously doubt his commitment to the citizens of the 6th District. Instead of engaging in a battle of ideas, he’s retreating to lawsuits.”
The 6th Congressional District includes parts of Montgomery, Chester, Berks, and Lehigh Counties.
Loading ...
25 Responses
Actually this is good news for
the 6th- and even for dems. Li is totally unqualified for Congress. It’s not her gender or age that are the issue- she is as they say totally not qualified. Parish may be tough for some dems to swallow- but he might beat a party hack like Costello. He’s a business person – a military veteran and unlike Costello he isnt a pimp for the Republican establishment. If Clinton runs against Rubio-
It will be a democratic landslide in PA and we
Can say Adieu to Costello and Toomey.Spare us a loser like Li!
This fiasco with Li’s signatures and Parrish’s general weakness as a candidate underscores the importance of Dems needing to break through downballot in the outer Philly suburbs. Sure, this is a tough area for Dems, but Dems have won and held down tougher districts in the past with a candidate having roots and popularity locally. Tim Holden is a great example; despite my gripes with many of his positions, he was a valuable representative back when he held down the very Rupublican old 17th CD.
It’s a difficult task, but Dems cannot just hunker down in cities, boroughs, and the inner townships and hope redistricting goes better next decade.
Tipster-
That’s pretty much what I said, though I wasn’t aware it was a specific ruling.
It didn’t use to be that way when I got involved years ago, and wanted to show an example. The Havertown vs Haverford was always confusing.
I always try to go with the township/borough out of habit.
@DD, Postal city doesn’t count as a basis for objection. There was an appellate court decision that says you can put postal city in lieu of municipality.
flynnbw-
I didn’t even count using postal city against her, as it’s my understanding that judges are lenient on that subject due to the ambiguity to voters and irrelevant distinction. Two examples from Delco.
Havertown, PA (postal) is Haverford Township (voting Municipality)
Broomall, PA (postal) is Marple Township (voting Municipality)
@ Chuck, yes, they are:
https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/NE9B4DD70343011DA8A989F4EECDB8638?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)
Her response reads like a concession. That suitcase full of dreams just got lost by whatever airline she flew into the 7th err 6th district on. Probably a Boeing Dreamliner. She should start looking for it. A good place to start is where Romney keeps his binders full of women. Bye Bye Lindy
I am not sure about the other counties in the district but if she got invalid signatures in Lebanon County she has no one to blame except herself. I gave her a list of all registered Democrats in Lebanon County.
Tipster– Candidate Affidavits are not required for Presidential candidates, so no, no one was stupid enough to challenge Hillary for her not filing something that wasn’t required. Thanks for playing, though.
Stop the whining. Everyone knows that petition-gathering is tough in PA. You have to get 3-4x the number because there will invariably be mistakes: you’ll get Rs or no party, people will put their USPS “city” rather than their township, etc.
If she has truly not gathered anywhere near close to enough, chalk this up as a learning experience — hopefully next time out she’ll be better prepared.
Her petitions are public record online, and they are atrocious.
Food for thought-
1) They haven’t legalized pot yet, so that “light in your life” shouldn’t be from a match to light your joint.
2) This person posting positive on the Internet, says a lot of negative things off the net, disparaging their opponent or claiming endorsements they don’t have or “letting the crazy slip out”. So, don’t buy into Internet personas.
PA-
There are plenty of women running, and her gender is not the knock against Lindy. The knock against her is how incredibly superficial and manipulative she is, while playing the victim. Many consider her a pathological liar. Her resume (thin as it is) falls apart upon close examination.
It is amazing how much money she raised, until you examine how she did it.
contactsport –
Lindy would have been better starting out smaller with a St House race and learning the ropes. There are seats where it is difficult to find candidates and she could have received more guidance.
So-
A lot of her signers are registered voters, but not registered Dems.
When people attack us on the Internet, many of us immediately assume that the attack has merit and means there’s something wrong with us. I choose to have a different perspective — I like to have compassion for these folks. Let’s face it: A happy person won’t waste his time posting negativity on positive people’s pages. Therefore, we must have a tremendous amount of compassion for these people. Anyone who wastes his time and energy spreading negativity clearly needs more light in his life.
Okay, I decided to take a look myself from the downloadable Tif files
there are 14 lines on the first side of a sheet and 16 lines on the back, for total of 30 lines, numbered 1 to 30. There is separate column for house number, for the street name and for city
Page 1 only 17 lines filled out
line 2 illegible
line 3 has completely wrong house number
line 4 illegible
line 10, person is registered independent on 9th St in Philly
line 12 crossed out
line 13, person is registered independent on 9th St in Philly
line 14 illegible
Page 2: 5 entries
line 4 not registered
line 5 is registered in Indiana county
Page 3: 13 entries
line 1: is registered Republican
line 2: illegible
line 3: illegible
line 4: crossed out
line 5: crossed out
line 6: illegible
line 7: registered independent
line 8: crossed out
line 9: crossed out
So, score after first 3 pages: 17 out of 35
Admittedly, some might be more legible on originals than online scan/copies.
Page 18: 30 lines
line 3: registered independent
line 5: no such person or address
line 6: registered independent
line 7: registered independent
line 8: registered republican in monroe county
line 9: registered republican in monroe county
line 12: registered in philadelphia
line 15: illegible
line 16: registered independent
line 17: registered independent
line 18: registered independent
line 19: not found/registered at address
line 20: registered independent
line 26: registered independent
line 27: not found/registered at address
line 28: registered independent
line 29: not found/registered at address
line 30: registered independent
That’s 18 bad out of 30. There were even a few that looked illegible that I figured out, but if they are part of the challenge, Lindy’s team might not figure them out.
Anyway, I picked page 18 because it was filled.
All in all, the petitions look pretty bad. I’m really not sure how all the illegibles are going to play out. Whole sheets could be bad. It’s quite a mess.
It’s less than 50% in my random sampling and I’m not being hard-core about it.
Lindy did not pay any company $26k, not even close. The idea that people, especially women, should wait in line before running for office is part of the reason why our politics is so ossified and broken.
The reason we have the process of circulating petitions to get signatures from the constituents in each party is because it is meant to be difficult to run for office. We don’t want everyone to run. We want people from the community, who have a base, who know the community, to run to represent us. That is why Parrish had the committee’s circulating his petitions. He has the base. He has put in the work over these two years to develop relationships and get the support of the local community. Lindy came late to the effort, and has only been running in the 6th since January. Parrish has been running for 2 years.That is why she had to pay a company $26,000 to get strangers to circulate her petitions. The committee has the tools and knows who is a registered voter in the district, and apparently standing outside a supermarket to try to get signatures isn’t the way to be successful. Lindy should step aside and try again another day, the way Parrish did in 2014. He stepped aside when it wasn’t his day. Lindy should learn that lesson and develop a base and try again another time.
I spent one day in the 6th during petition season and was asked to sign her petition in 6 degree weather so I’m inclined to believe this is a bs move because Parrish is scared.
Presidential candidates don’t have to file one genius.
Anyone challenge Hillary’s for failure to include a candidate affidavit?
I’m not at all surprised. I talked with her a few times about working on her campaign, and every conversation sure seemed like somebody running a campaign based on nothing more than a suitcase full of dreams. I’m glad it never came to be, I would have probably quit once she decided to switch districts.
It’s a shame. She could have been a solid candidate in a decade or so, once she had some life experience. Now at least we have a good example of why you don’t run for congress at 25, and why the DCCC should keep their noses out of state politics.
All of Lindy’s contributions are from American citizens or green card holders — don’t traffic in lies. None of her signatures are fake.
Fracking Parrish won’t get my vote – ever. Fast Eddie can go F himself for digging up this corporate Toad and slapping a D on a lifelong republican.
Lindy’s campaign has been one atrocity after another. Switching districts, non-citizen donations, fake signatures. Whats next? She is so entitled.
She has $400K to $500K cash on hand, and she can’t get enough proper ballot signatures?
Sounds worse than amateur hour (if true about the bad signatures).
Maybe there are more signatures in a suitcase somewhere that was filled with dreams?
Actually, this result would validate the committees who endorsed Parrish over Li, and further diminish the judgement of the DCCC bean counters regarding their preferences in PA politics. And, if the challenges prove true, I hope someone gets a quote from Bob Brady on his endorsement of Lindy Li.
Li’s response isn’t what someone who had enough accurate petitions would say. Sounds like she’s coming off the ballot