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PA-Gov: Guzzardi Faces Petition Challenge

Guzzardi
Guzzardi

After months of warfare on the Democratic side, it now appears a skirmish has broken out in the contest for the Republican nomination for Governor.

On Tuesday afternoon, four Republican voters, with help from the state party, filed a court challenge alleging that candidate Bob Guzzardi did not accumulate enough petitions to make the May ballot.

To secure ballot access, a prospective candidate must compile at least 2,000 signatures including 100 in at least ten separate counties. The motion filed against Guzzardi alleges that many of his signatures are defective and that the Guzzardi campaign was able to gather the hundred necessary signatures from only eight counties.

“This gives me credibility as a candidate,” Guzzardi told PoliticsPA. “The Republican machine sees me as a threat. Corbett is panicking.”

“Today, Tom Corbett supporters filed a petition challenge to knock Republican primary challenger Bob Guzzardi off the ballot,” the PA Democratic Party stated in a posting on their anti-Corbett website. “This isn’t a surprise. Tom Corbett has always wanted voters to have less access and less choice when it comes to voting. This proves he’s afraid because as polls show, not even Republicans support his re-election.”

Megan Sweeney, Communications Director for the Pennsylvania Republican Party sidestepped the issue while criticizing the Democratic primary field.

“The Democrats are doing everything they can to deflect attention away from the lackluster group of candidates that they soundly rejected last month,” she told PoliticsPA.

The move does carry a real risk for the Governor. Corbett would be a heavy favorite in a contest with Guzzardi, yet if he is seen as trying to unfairly push his opponent out of the race it could seriously backfire on the incumbent.

 

17 Responses

  1. @ DD:

    I was referring to the classic ad for Hebrew National; do you remember how the camera rose [comparably to how Orson started “Citizen Kane]?

    In any case, do you realize you have insulted the intelligence of the dozens of attorneys representing Corbett?

  2. “answering to a Higher Authority” ??

    Do you believe you are hearing voices? Getting instructions from a burning bush, perhaps?

    You didn’t successfully refute anything, let alone with aplomb. As for Zachary Nye, his address, as of my recently updated voter file (March 10th) is still 26 S. Hanover St. … NOT the 314 address he signed under.

    His signature line is completely invalid, as that’s not his registered address. The failure of Corbett’s team to challenge said signature is their own fault, not mine.

  3. A few mop-up points are in-order.

    1. My involvement in the legal analysis of the database ended with the aforementioned due-diligence effort provided by a private citizen; indeed, I just finished providing feedback to an attorney for the DoS who provided additional refinements to my appreciation of the administrative process.

    2. DD should note that his preliminary swipes @ Guzzardi’s petitions [which I had rebutted last week, with aplomb] were not included in Corbett’s Cumberland County listing; further, the only “manure” he spouts is reflective of certain topics he finds distasteful [such as the underlying corruption of excessive spending by governments.

    3. Scott Wagner’s historic/overwhelming victory in York County prompted me to rename it [in an online comment] to be “Guzzardi Territory”; outside the Delaware Valley, people know how problematic are the re-election chances of the incumbent.

    4. This latter point is particularly telling, for his having ducked the media [as per the Daily News article] serves only to illustrate his intent to deny responsibility for what he has [perhaps reflexly, “for the party”] chosen to do; that this is an 11th-hour filing [per the AP] illustrates, perhaps, Corbett’s reticence to risk the embarrassment of losing his challenge.

    5. The first question I will ask Richard Tems [who knows Guzzardi and myself] will be whether he personally scrutinized and vetted the filing which now appears under his name; he should know that, henceforth, his involvement in this gambit will not serve to dissuade Guzzardi’s advocates [“Et tu, Brute/Ricardum, then die/withdraw Caesar/Guzzardi!”] because we are, like Foremost, answering to a Higher Authority.

  4. The Guzz could immediately change this state by pledging double against whatever the SRCC does in primaries.

  5. 3100 signatures? Bob survives this challenge. This, much like his candidacy is just a distraction. If The Guzz opens up his checkbook and REALLY self funds? Then the race could get interesting.

  6. PAINDY, I assume that you have the same problem with the challenge filed to Jay Paterno’s petitions. Am I right?

  7. William Robert-

    Bob’s not pure? “Pure” is tough, but he’s certainly been spouting some grade A manure.

    As for the challengers to Bob’s petitions:
    Richard W. Stewart, Robert K. Robinson, Richard Tems and Donna M. Cosmello

  8. It is high time to recognize that a new bipartisan aristocracy has arisen on the Susquehanna. It absorbs an enormous part of the state income. It’s position before the people is deceitful and false. It’s leaders are forced to deceive the masses, calling black white. Bob Guzzardi throws defiance in their faces. The struggle that looks ahead is a struggle for the future of all Pennsylvania.

  9. Ol’ Bob isn’t so pure himself! He’s willing to overlook some pretty vile people as long as it serves his purpose.

  10. Paindy is right! What kind of people are we anyhow?

    The self-dealing, self-serving, self-interested solons on the Susquehanna are quaking in their Gucci shoes. A reckoning is coming and it’s name is Bob Guzzardi.

  11. The shiny jackboots of the PAGOP and the Tom Corbett/Acting Governor John Brabender Administration have descended upon the throat of Bob Guzzardi in another attempt to silence one their opponents, who is not interested in Corbett crony capitalism. The state of PA is now run by the Consultant Class that Rush Limbaugh has so eloquently warned us about: Brabender, the Nutts, the Bakers. Mr. Guzzardi, the Edmund Burke of Pennsylvania will never be silenced.http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140319_The_GOP_swats_at_a_gadfly.html

  12. Fight on, Bob! I think you can win in May and so does Corbett or he wouldn’t challenge you.

  13. Before this battle is over, they will know that the few stood against many!!” Bob Guzzardi the Corbett lawyers and the PAGOP Consultant Class cannot kill the dream of the GRASSROOTS! Submission Never!! http://youtu.be/QkWS9PiXekE

  14. This is their M.O.
    Did the same thing to David Christian 2 yrs ago. They lost, but totally crippled a shoestring candidate that was challenging their preferred guy out of the southeast.
    Mostly it is to keep challengers away from future elections.

  15. Bob is toast. His petitions won’t stand up to this challenge. He needed far more sigs then he received to survive a challenge like this.

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