Businessman, and regular PoliticsPA commenter, Bob Guzzardi provided one of the biggest surprises of petition season when he accumulated enough signatures to make the Republican primary ballot in the race for Governor.
Only a week later, however, the candidate received notice that his petitions were being challenged by four Republicans with backing from the state party.
To qualify for the May 20th primary ballot a candidate must gather at least 2,000 signatures while obtaining 100 from at least ten separate counties. The challengers allege that Guzzardi only acquired the requisite number of signatures for eight counties.
Currently, a hearing on the motion to dismiss Guzzardi from the ballot is set for the morning of April 2nd.
So, we ask you our readers, do you think Bob Guzzardi will survive this petition challenge and have the privilege of seeing his name on the ballot come May 20th?
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6 Responses
{Here are a few errata, recognizing that it IS 3 a.m., neither of which impede conveying the essence of what Guzzardi is trying to achieve.].
“entrrenched” is a typo [edit the double-r] and there are extra commas and periods scattered-about.
One ‘graph requires a slight modification [“politicizied” instead of “popularized”]: “Two metaphors are apt: [1]–He would rather return to the Union County Farmer’s Market [“populism”], than lecture an audience he feels may be dominated by RINO’s. [“politicizied”], and [2]–He would rather update his blogs and engage reactions on Facebook [“retail”] than blanket the media with feel-good videos [“wholesale”].”
Without editorializing, the “Judge” requires a mid-course correction; Guzzardi is reticent to spend $ collected from others–at this point–and he has really not yet been “tested” regarding how much he would self-finance.
As he has written [on this site and elsewhere], he doesn’t want to be vulnerable to the charge that the issues he raises are channeling the interests of donors; he even refused to countenance my purchasing an “Exhibitor” table @ this weekend’s Leadership Conference.
Despite the fact that, during the past 14 years, we haven’t always manifest lock-step unity when determining the optimal course-of-action, we have always been interacting in a way characterized by how we have occasionally signed e-mail “blasts” [“two minds but one voice, ‘fighting the never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American Way’ “…with apologies to George Reeves].
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Two metaphors are apt: [1]–He would rather return to the Union County Farmer’s Market [“populism”], than lecture an audience he feels may be dominated by RINO’s. [“popularized”], and [2]–He would rather update his blogs and engage reactions on Facebook [“retail”] than blanket the media with feel-good videos [“wholesale”].
He, in short, envisions running an “unconventional campaign” that focuses on representing The Forgotten Taxpayer in two key ways, both recalling ’10 campaign-promises: [1]–Corbett broke his “no new taxes/fees” pledge [an ethical concern], and [2]–Corbett has failed to resolve core-policy dilemmas [State Store, ‘Pension] by relating effectively with a legislature led by his own party [a philosophical concern].
The reader should not perceive this e-mail as an epitaph, for Guzzardi is, assuredly, girding for [legal] battle; also, the reader should not mistake his forthrightness as manifesting personal distaste for a universally-viewed “nice guy” incumbent [marred by Sandusky, for sure, but ultimately a Republican].
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He is a truth-teller, and candidly worries that Corbett and the R’s leading the legislature are being “rented” by labor unions [noting that the Dems are “owned” by these engrained entities].
In the process, Guzzardi is acting-out deeply-harbored emotional-angst,, accumulated over the past decade, and he yearns for the opportunity [as reflected in multiple news-articles] to employ his candidacy as a soap-box to convey his “constitutional conservative” approach to tackling entrrenched-lobbyists.
One would think [and hope, recalling how many people have labored so aggressively to allow him the opportunity to invade the public-square] that the Court would find a way to “balance the equities” accordingly…to benefit the commonweal of this Commonwealth.
Bob Guzzardi will be removed from the ballot. Not because of insufficient signatures, but because of neglecting to file a Statement of Financial Interest with the State Ethics commission.
None of this matters. Since Godfather Guzz is unwilling to spend any of his millions on his own campaign, it is fait accompli that the Sample Ballot GOP voters will commit political necrophilia and nominate His Excellency for another term. Corbett da Frog will then be crushed worse than Santorum in 2006.
Say hello to Governor Tom Wolf, may God have Mercy on our souls.
paindy is right! What kind of people are we anyhow?
The Guzzardi campaign demonstrates something about democracy: that it can never be taken for granted. It will rank among the signal struggles for emancipation like the Selma to Montgomery March.
As I wrote previously…
This is indeed a source of worriment:
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge disqualified a candidate from appearing on the Republican primary election ballot because he violated state election law, having filed his financial disclosure forms with the State Ethics Commission after the March 11 deadline.
http:/
/www.ldnews.com/news/ci_25386127/diamond-challenges-petitions-of-eisenhauer-and-bechtold-in-102nd-house-district-race
One would THINK that this was cured via subsequent filing…and testimony could be evoked from the Ethics Commission suggesting that they probably haven’t even started looking @ the submissions that had arrived on-time and, therefore, this glitch should be viewed as de-minimus [even if it would require another trip to the Supremes to suggest this problem be revisited].
BTW, also, I had already done a bit of research along these lines ~10 days ago:
It is unclear whether this decision will be applicable to Guzzardi, but it is most-definitely of-concern:
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge disqualified a candidate from appearing on the Republican primary election ballot because he violated state election law, having filed his financial disclosure forms with the State Ethics Commission after the March 11 deadline.
I raised this issue during my chat with the lady @ the DoS, ten days ago, because I felt the lingo in the downloaded instruction-sheet was vague; under point 4.ii., it states that inter alia the Statement of Financial Interests must be submitted with the nomination papers and that it is “required to be filed with the State Ethics Commission.” I observed that it does NOT provide a deadline for said-submission, and advised that this instruction-sheet be updated accordingly. [It may be recalled that my chat with her occurred immediately prior to a “post-mortem”-type meeting, to be held by the DoS to discuss how well they had handled the entire petitioning-process.]
Having Bob Guzzardi removed from the ballot will be a PHYRRIC victory of massive proportions for the Corbett/Acting Governor Brabender team. The Grass Roots cannot be silenced! Bob Guzzardi will not be silenced. Bob Guzzardi will be turned into a folk hero. THE GRASSROOTS WILL NOT BE SILENCED BY THE PAGOP CONSULTING CLASS! http://youtu.be/Qsma7OGcp6A