Meehan asks court to dismiss petition challenge

Republican congressional candidate and former U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan today asked Commonwealth Court to dismiss a challenge to his nominating petitions, saying that he was never served with a copy of the complaint.

That challenge, filed Tuesday by supporters of Meehan's likely Democratic opponent, state Rep. Bryan Lentz, charged that the nominating petitions were riddled with enough errors to disqualify Meehan from the ballot.

The campaign for the open seat in suburban Philadelphia's Seventh District has swiftly descended to bitter exchanges and threats of still more legal action.

Today's motion claimed that under Commonwealth Court rules the petitioners were required to serve Meehan with a copy of the complaint by 5 p.m. Wednesday. But a court order issued today said that Meehan did not have to be served until March 29.

The Lentz challenge is "fundamentally political and not legal," says the Meehan motion, filed by James Gardner Colins, former president judge of Commonwealth Court.

The dismissal motion was a "premature experience," said Cliff Levine, lawyer for the challengers. He said that Meehan should have read the actual court order instead of filing a baseless claim.

The court order also set a hearing on the challenge for April 14 in Philadelphia.

"This is just the first step in our attack on a pretty spurious motion," Colins said.

An examination of the Meehan 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 challenge said. It also alleged that several GOP operatives did not follow proper procedures for circulating petitions, invalidating entire sheets of signatures.

Such flaws are "extreme technicalities that are amendable," Colins said.

The all-out ballot challenges common to Pennsylvania politics provide "a depressing comment on our democracy," Colins said. "What [Lentz] is asking is for the courts to declare him congressman."

Meanwhile, a Drexel Hill woman who said her signature was forged on a Meehan petition described the experience during a conference call with reporters, organized by the Lentz campaign.

"It's appalling to me that somebody, in furtherance of Pat Meehan's cause, took my identity," said Terry Bradley, who recently switched her registration from Republican to Democrat.

In Media, meanwhile, four Republican volunteers who circulated Meehan petitions said they had been defamed and demanded an apology. "These reckless allegations are false," said one of them, Jeffrey L. Rudolph.