Harrisburg — Candidates and campaign operatives crowded the Pa. State Department’s temporary office space to deliver stacks upon stacks of nomination petitions Tuesday.
Petitions were due by 5pm for President, U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, Attorney General, Auditor General, Treasurer, and presidential delegates. Due to the chaos with legislative redistricting, State Senate and State House petitions are due at 5pm on Thursday.
President Barack Obama’s campaign came in first with around 48,000 signatures.
All four Republican presidential candidates – Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum – made the ballot.
Senator Bob Casey scored around 19,000.
Sam Rohrer’s vaunted grassroots network kicked into gear and delivered around 13,000 signatures for U.S. Senate.
Endorsed Republican Senate hopefuls Steve Welch and Tom Smith each turned in around 6,000 signatures. Smith supporters called it a poor showing for an endorsed candidate; Welch supporters said Smith’s campaign had paid to circulate petitions while they used volunteers.
Marc Scaringi finished with an impressive 5,500 signatures for U.S. Senate.
Note: Signature totals are estimates from the campaigns themselves; the Dep’t of State counts only up to the point that the minimum is met.
Former Governor Ed Rendell still holds the record for most ever petition signatures, with nearly 53,000 in 2006.
No major surprises on Tuesday afternoon; only a few candidates didn’t make it who were expected to. Stephen Urban didn’t file for Congress in pa-17. Devon Cade, who was planning to challenge Eugene DePasquale for Auditor General, didn’t make the ballot.
Here’s the full list as of 7:30pm on Tuesday. Note: Several candidates PoliticsPA witnessed filing petitions – including John Maher for Auditor General and Bill Vinsko for Congress – are not on the list. It is still in process.
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3 Responses
Sam Rohrer is the best and most qualified candidate for the US Senate. He has won every straw poll and has collected the most petition signatures. The patriots of Pa. have spoken and don’t need or want the Republican establishment telling them who to vote for. On to victory in April.
By far, Ed Rendell did not turn in the most signatures. In 1998 Peg Luksik turned in 78,000 for governor, and in 2006 Carl Romanelli turned in the absolute most in Pennsylvania history, 98,500 when he ran for US Senate. Sadlly, the D’s challenged his petitions and had him thrown off the ballot and fined him $80,000 to boot. Worse yet, it was Bonusgate dollars that paid for the challenge. The D’s and R’s have been using the “challenge ’em, fine ’em” trick since 2004. Because of their undemocratic tactics, I remain the LAST third party or independent candidate to appear on the statewide ballot for Governor–and that was ten years ago.
Joe Vodvarka can Beat Casey http://www.joevodvarka.com/