Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I'm off the ballot

Come November 7, 2006, in the general election for PA Senate, 42nd district, my name, Mark Rauterkus, Independent, will NOT appear. Stay tuned. More news shortly.

We just returned from Harrisburg, safe and sound.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why?

Mark Rauterkus said...

I was not willing to fight their lawyers in court and open myself to many extra liabilities -- including court costs, opposition attorney fees and collateral attackes to me, and anyone who came into contact with the entire process -- including the privacy of nearly 1,000 signers.

It would have taken days and I needed an extension to prepare a line-by-line fight. However, the judge didn't grant me an extension. Plus, the extension would have landed me back in Harrisburg (more court and opposition fees) -- and -- I'm headed to Canada for a long-term committment with family and profession (swim coaching) for more than two weeks.

I'll be back on Labor Day weekend and that's very, very late for an extension.

Much of the work I had done was to help Russ Diamond for Governor -- and that campaign had its closing AFTER I put in my petitions (and they were joint petitions).

I wanted to run. I wanted to raise issues. I wanted to be on the ballot and give a choice. My hopes of winning in a D dominated district were slim. My chances of winning without spending any money were absent. But, I could have gotten 40% of the vote just out of protest. I seemed to have been a threat to him.