Motion says Meehan’s petitions riddled with errors

Republican congressional candidate and former U.S. attorney Patrick Meehan filed nominating petitions riddled with enough errors to disqualify him from the ballot in the Seventh District U.S. House race, according to a challenge filed with Commonwealth Court.

The motion asks the court to rule that most of the 3,623 signatures Meehan submitted are invalid, leaving him with fewer than the 1,000 required to run in the May 18 GOP primary.

Supporters of State Rep. Bryan Lentz, the likely Democratic nominee, argued that the problems were signs of corruption in the long-dominant Delaware County Republican organization. Meehan said today in a letter to Lentz that the challenge was a "shameless stunt" that raised petty issues in light of the nation's economic problems and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This moment is too important to be directed into the irrelevant 'gotcha' politics that will only further fuel the cynicism and anger of frustrated voters," Meehan wrote, demanding that Lentz personally step up to accuse him if he had any evidence of wrongdoing.

With the incumbent, Democrat Joe Sestak, not seeking reelection as he challenges U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the open seat is being targeted by both parties.

Technically, the petition challenge was brought by four unknown registered Republican voters in Delaware County, though the Lentz campaign expressed support in a statement released Tuesday night after the document was filed.

The challenge says two longtime leaders of the county GOP, Thomas Judge Sr. and John McNichol, were among those who signed affidavits as circulators of Meehan petitions without witnessing the signatures of voters, as required by law.

A line-by-line examination of the petition sheets found fictitious signatures, people who were not registered to vote or were not enrolled with the Republican Party, illegible signatures, and other defects, the complaint said. All signatures gathered by circulators who acted improperly should be thrown out, it said.

"What's unusual is when a candidate recognizes impropriety," said Cliff Levine, a Pittsburgh lawyer specializing in election law who filed the challenge. "Mr. Meehan agrees with us that there was impropriety. Our point of difference is over the scope."

Last week, Meehan asked the Delaware County prosecutor to investigate some of his nominating petitions for possible forgeries, saying his campaign had identified at least four questionable signatures. The problems arose with 20 pages of petitions circulated by Paul Summers of Upper Darby, a longtime GOP operative.

The prosecutor, G. Michael Green, is reviewing the referral, his office has said. Green gave $1,000 to Meehan's campaign in September, campaign-finance records show.

In his letter, Meehan did not rebut the specific charges in the complaint, though he asserted that Lentz, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, would not be able to "personally affirm" as an officer of the court that there was sufficient evidence to merit removing him from the ballot.

He also said that the Lentz campaign had spent the last week calling thousands of people who had signed his petitions, badgering them with questions, and that his campaign had found 550 signatures on Lentz's petitions that could be challenged on various grounds.

"This is one of the weirdest and most defensive letters I have ever seen in politics," Lentz campaign manager Vincent Rongione said. "It represents the panicked ramblings of somebody who knows more unsavory actions by his campaign are about to be revealed."