SEE ALSO: Lentz camp criticizes Meehan revelation
By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
Congressional candidate Pat Meehan on Thursday asked the Delaware County district attorney to investigate the Republican’s own nominating petitions after he said he became aware of possible fraudulent signatures.
Meehan, running in the 7th Congressional District, said he received a call Wednesday night from a neighbor who told him despite the fact his signature was purportedly on the nominating petition, he had not signed it. He also raised questions about the signature of another man, a former neighbor, who supposedly signed it despite the fact he had moved away.
“The item was of sufficient concern that I asked an attorney who serves as a campaign advisor to review — to the best of our ability — the totality of the petitions that were filed to place my name on the primary ballot,” Meehan wrote in a letter, provided to the media, to District Attorney Mike Green. “In doing so, we identified the names and signatures of four individuals — including my neighbor and former neighbor — that we believe are questionable and have the potential to not be legitimate.”
The campaign also submitted for review all 20 petitions circulated by the man who collected the four questionable signatures, a move it said showed “an abundance of caution.”
Nominating petitions for the May 18 primary were due Tuesday. Reached for comment, spokesman Pete Peterson said the campaign is not concerned the questionable signatures could endanger the candidate’s placement on the ballot.
But it’s still a potentially sensitive issue for Meehan, a former U.S. attorney and district attorney. Any legal misstep for a candidate with a law and order background can be particularly damaging, and in his letter, he cited past prosecutions he’s undertaken related to petition signatures.
“As a candidate, I continue to believe that any individual involved in impropriety related to nominating petitions should be and must be held accountable,” he wrote. “A nominating petition is a legal document which is supported by an oath. I expect that those who circulate petitions on behalf of my campaign would do so with integrity. If that is not the case, than they should be held accountable.”
The Meehan campaign did move quickly to release the information, sending an e-mail to reporters at 1:30 a.m. Thursday. The accompanying brief press release said the letter would be hand-delivered to the DA at 8:30 a.m.
The former district attorney is one the most high-profile Republican congressional candidates in the country, with the GOP seeing him as one of its best chances to pick up a seat in congress. The 7th District seat became an open one after incumbent Joe Sestak decided to run for U.S. Senate.
Meehan will almost certainly face state Rep. Bryan Lentz, himself a top Democratic recruit, in the general election.