But my petitions are now notorized. I've got more flowing into me from some other sources. They'll go out in a next day envelope on Thursday, I expect.
Philadelphia Daily News | 07/26/2006 | D-day nears for lesser-known candidates D-day nears for lesser-known candidates
Deadline's Aug. 1 for nominating papers
By BOB WARNER warnerb@phillynews.com 215-854-5885
Time is running out for independent and third-party candidates hoping to get onto Pennsylvania ballots in November.
With less than a week to file nomination papers before an Aug. 1 deadline, none of the potential statewide candidates has yet assembled the 67,070 voter signatures needed.
Russ Diamond, a founder of the PA CleanSweep campaign to dump state lawmakers who supported the legislative pay boost last summer, said yesterday that his campaign for governor has only 25,000 signatures in hand.
Hundreds of petitions with additional signatures are still making the rounds, but Diamond described it as 'a close call' whether he'll collect enough.
'This is the week we're standing by the post office box, waiting for the stuff to come in,' Diamond said.
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The Pennsylvania Green Party, running a slate of candidates for statewide and lesser offices, has 50,000 or 60,000 signatures in hand and expects to reach 100,000, enough to secure ballot spots, according to the party's U.S. Senate candidate, Carl Romanelli.
"We're very confident," Romanelli said. "We've had to grow up in a hurry and put together a professional organization to make this happen."
Pennsylvania's signature requirement is considered one of the most stringent in the country for independent and third-party candidates.
It's pegged at 2 percent of the vote total for the most popular candidate in the most recent statewide election - in this case, the 3.3 million votes that Bob Casey Jr. ran up in his race for state treasurer in 2004.
It's unclear how the extra candidates might affect the statewide races.
Conventional wisdom is that Romanelli, 46, a former Family Court officer in Luzerne County, would be more likely to draw votes from Casey, now the Democratic Senate candidate, than from incumbent Republican Rick Santorum.
Romanelli describes himself as the only pro-choice candidate in the Senate race. He also favors universal health care and the replacement of Western troops in Iraq with a force of Muslim soldiers from U.S. allies.
But Romanelli thinks he could also draw significant support from conservative Republicans disturbed with the Bush administration's record budget deficits, antiterror surveillance programs and expansion of executive branch powers.
The Green Party also has a candidate for governor, Marakay Rogers, a York County lawyer, and a candidate for lieutenant governor, Christina Valente, who teaches environmental law and policy at Temple and Villanova universities.
Diamond has had a much higher public profile, leading the successful effort to topple state lawmakers involved in the legislative pay grab.
As a candidate for governor, Diamond could draw more attention to Gov. Rendell's support and signature for the pay increases. But he could also draw anti-incumbent votes away from the Republican candidate for governor, Lynn Swann.
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