Lindy Li is out of the 2016 election contest.
After her Democratic primary opponent Mike Parrish challenged her petitions, Li dropped out over the weekend.
“I’m not running for Congress,” Li told the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari. “We were leading the polls by a substantial margin and we are far more well resourced, but I wish him the very best. I will be running again. I’ve learned my lesson and no one will be able to exploit my weaknesses in the future. I’m just terribly sorry about what happened, it breaks my heart.”
It’s been a tumultuous few months for Li. She originally announced her candidacy last June in the PA-7 race but switched contests in December.
“I am thankful to be focusing full time on the November General Election which is a must-win for the American people. Leadership is sorely lacking in Washington and we need a dramatic change in Congress,” Parrish responded. “I applaud Lindy for her willingness to jump into the political process and I thank her for withdrawing from the race when it was time to do so. By stepping aside, she has cleared the way for everyone to work together and focus on giving the people of the Sixth district the leadership we deserve in Washington.”
“Today’s win is a victory for our campaign, but a minor victory. The important victory has to come in November,” he continued. “In the coming months, I will continue to work tirelessly on winning this campaign, just as I will work tirelessly to give our community the representation we deserve in Washington. I look forward to working with Lindy, with party leaders, and with every resident of the Sixth District of every political affiliation to show that Congress can deliver jobs, quality education, and opportunities for all, and not just a bunch of sound bites. Together we can build a coalition and raise the money required to defeat Ryan Costello and his running mate, whether that is Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.”
The NRCC immediately pounced on the announcement, noting that Parrish has just $27,000 cash on hand.
“With Lindy Li ending her campaign for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 6th District, Democrats are left with another district without an even remotely viable candidate,” NRCC Spokesman Chris Pack stated. “Maybe the DCCC should spend less time talking about their half-baked theories on how they are going to take back the majority this fall and more time getting actual candidates to run for office in the first place.”
Incumbent GOP freshman Rep. Ryan Costello is seeking a second term this November.
The 6th Congressional District consists of parts of Berks, Chester, Lebanon and Montgomery Counties.
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21 Responses
I always warry of canidates who come out of nowehere and suddenly start trying to act like they know their field. I give her credit for her tenacity and effort. I do not give her credit for what appears to be a campaign run by some one whose never been involved before.
Best piece of advice to her – get out of the city if you are serious about running. She’d be better off running against Fattah, who a lot of city dems want out then in the PA07 or PA06. Sorry, mainline kids but do NOT play well in Berks County. She might be okay in the 07 but doesn’t have enough ‘Grit’ to run seriously. Also learn the bloody election laws….you can end up in jail if you really mess-up. Petitions and affidavits are legal contract, luckily no one sees her as a threat so no real consequences.
Is DD going to give up his place in his parent’s basement and move into a suburban storage unit?
Zakrey Bissell- her name won’t appear on the ballot. When she conceded to the petition challenge, she admitted that she didn’t qualify for the ballot.
Unless of course she goes through with the write-in campaign she’s encouraging. Although I find it very strange that a candidate would announce they’re not running while encouraging a write-in campaign at the same time. Maybe she’ll pull some write-in votes out of her “suitcase full of dreams.”
Zakrey Bissell
What district do you think she will run in? This is a legitimate question, given her flip from the 7th to the 6th (and living in neither).
Is she going to give up her place in Rittenhouse SQ and move into a suburban district?
Maybe she will try to run for vice-congressman, in case the regular congressman can’t fulfill his duties.
I’m hoping for she runs again in 2018 and I think for she will challenge the incumbent one on one from there and as the Democratic nominee for that office in 2018 as well.
I think for her name will still remain in the ballot.
she was and is a complete and total buffoon. the only person that should be crying more than her is costello
Barricks Einwohner-
We should have buttons that say:
“Lindy for PA 7th 2016”
with the 7th crossed out and 6th hand-written
then the 6th crossed out and ? written
and the 6 in 2016 crossed out and a ?
or just
“Lindy for PA ?th 201?”
She was around a little in Berks Co. last fall. She attended the fall dinner where McGinty was the speaker. I have a feeling that this was just a piggy back attempt with HRC at the very top and McGinty on the ballot. There are even a few buttons around which are real collectors items now. Parrish has tepid support.
gulagPittsburgh-
I think she plans to use it to purchase teeth, as an investment, and put them under her pillow each night while she dreams.
Why doesn’t Lindy Li give Parrish some of the cash she raised in her 2 fake runs for office?
Can I run?
Senator-
As Woody Allen once said:
“There’s nothing wrong with [her] that a little Prozac and a polo mallet can’t cure.”
Welp. Guess I will be writing in Donald Duck for this race. A carpet bagger and a closeted Republican who can’t even talk about his views on his campaign page. This is a shit sandwich that if Trump or Cruz is the nominee is a competitive district. Missed opportunity yet again!
Her delusion continues.
Chris-
She was completely on the verge of being kicked off. My understanding of the numbers was that she had 695 good/surviving signatures and 310 left to be challenged. If she prevailed on all 310, she would have had 1,005. This was not even remotely likely. Late Friday night, she was offered the opportunity to withdraw, rather than drag it out, lose decisively, appeal, lose that, etc.
As a condition of withdrawing, she had to agree not to try running write-in or similar effort. Otherwise, the case was going to continue and she would thrown off the ballot by the judge, triggering sore-loser law, and the same outcome.
Her “we are far more well resourced” statement is ridiculous because she had over a half-million dollars and couldn’t even get to the starting gate. Many of the signatures were not Dems, or outside the district. It appeared that there was some rampant forgery (particularly regarding the notary log).
Lindy herself circulated petitions, but used two different addresses in her circulator affidavit on the back. One was her address in the 7th and the other her address in the 6th. The problem was that she lived at neither of these addresses, and actually in an apartment in Rittenhouse Square (with plenty of documentary evidence like lease, and witnesses like landlords, doorman and other tenants). So, to avoid taking the stand to testify about her address and the inconsistency, she abandoned the petitions she had circulated from one of the addresses.
This was an unforced error, because she could have listed her Rittenhouse SQ address and not had a problem.
She says that: “I’ve learned my lesson and no one will be able to exploit my weaknesses in the future.”
She really hasn’t learned jack sh*t. On her FB page she’s encouraging the idea of a write-in, that she’s prohibited from, and essentially blaming everyone else for her own foolishness. She never had the support of the committees.
She pestered Ed Rendell to the point where she was following him around, and he turned around to tell her to leave him alone and that he was never going to support her. Now, when has anyone ever heard of a hound-dog like Rendell turning away the attention of the young lady? This is a first.
Her vapid and insipid talk of her “dreams” was grating. Every political person that I considered “sharp” dismissed her as a fool shortly after meeting her. The first (and only) time I every had a conversation with her, she claimed she could raise $7 million for the congressional race in the 7th. That’s twice what Sestak raised in 2006 before the district was gerrymandered (and around 3 times what Sestak has raised for his current Senate race).
The only “amazing” thing she did was raise a sh*t-load of money by playing the race card and sending donation requests to every Chinese-American from NGP lists and telling her her poor-little-rich-girl immigrant story. She left out how spoiled and entitled she was. Well, it did work to get her money. But, a fool and her money are soon parted.
Other criticisms of her included the charge that she is a pathological liar. Specifically, she would claim that people/groups had endorsed her, when they in fact had not. This seemed to be a pattern.
The DCCC and at least one PA congressman (who is totally embarrassed today) backed her because of the money. The DCCC does their bean counting, but can’t tell rat-droppings from beans.
In 2012, the DCCC (and party) backed Jackson Eaton in the primary, because he had raised a lot more money against Lehigh Dems county chairman Rick Daugherty. Now, Jackson was a Republican who had switched in the fall of 2011 (and his parents, who share his address, stayed Republican). The result of the primary:
“Eaton raised 18 times more cash than Daugherty, nearly $200,000 to Daugherty’s $11,000. Eaton outspent Daugherty 6 to 1, but Daugherty won by double digits, taking 59.3 percent of the vote as of press time.”
We have to see how the 7th shakes out with Mary Ellen Balchunis against Bill Golderer, which has similar pattern of an underfunded real Dem vs a well funded fake Dem.
My heart is in pieces. The very fabric of my soul is in tatters, ripped to shreds by the violent clash of reality against my own, mortal weakness.
The vessel in which I carried your hopes — your dreams! — has been shattered as if it were a ceramic vase slammed upon a concrete wall. Fractured into a thousand tiny fragments of hopelessness and despair.
To Pennsylvania I came from the pit of selfishness known as Goldman Sachs. Pennsylvania, that great land of opportunity and promise to all of those who wish to avoid real work by running for office.
My story was a uniquely American one — found no where else except within the fibers of my being. I was a millennial, given everything I had asked for since the day I was born. Told with earnestness by my elders how special I was, how urgently the world was in need of my service.
And how right they were. I heard your cries. I felt your pain. I wept with you in your sorrow. And when I finally came, finally arrived in PA-07, I wiped away your tears. I was the change you could believe in.
But lo, it was not to be. Your oppressors were too many, their numbers too strong.
But did I recoil? Did I surrender to the brisk headwind of fear? Of course not. With my suitcase full of dreams and my father’s money, I cast off from the shores of the 7th District and set course for the opportunities of the West.
To PA-06 I went. To fulfill my destiny I strove.
Our journey was not a smooth one. Not all accepted my promise. Some refused to believe. The oppressed became the tools of their oppressors. The fear and doubt overcame them.
But as I walked the slopes of the 6th District, wandering amongst its beauty and reading beneath the idyllic trees on its gentle slopes before returning to my apartment in Rittenhouse Square, I kept hope. I refused to give up on me.
The great powers of finance and oppression continued to give battle to my dreams. I will take the insidious and venomous influence money out of politics, I swore, and I raised $600,000 to prove it.
It was as that great American visionary and leader Abraham Lincoln once wrote: “If you pay enough people from the halfway house at 42nd and Lancaster one dollar per sig, you can get enough lousy ones that nobody will challenge your nominating petitions.”
But it was fruitless. Meaningless and insignificant matters — the law, the election code, the truth — conspired against me and together, they prevailed.
Hope abandoned me. Faith led me astray.
But the end has not yet been written. Lessons have been learned. Mistakes will not be repeated. My ego and narcissism have grown and are more powerful than ever.
The path ahead will be stormy. But it is not finished. I will return.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Bob Casey. It tolls for thee.
Oh no my suitcase full of dreams is empty. What will I do?? Maybe get a job and some life experience before I tell the world how cure all of its ills. but have no fear I will run for something again! Maybe I will even live in the district I am running from but probably not since that not what narcissists (oh I meant inspired millennials)do
Switches districts, gets knocked off. How inspiring!
Sounds like she was on the verge of being kicked off the ballot. Ooof.
Nick — You still haven’t reported on the Superior Court’s rulings on the Penn State case. That’s a huge case here in PA. And the Court found that a key figure in the Kane debacle lied to the Court. They found that Frank Fina’s conduct was “highly improper.” Isn’t that news?? Big news?