Attorney: Petition challenge withdrawn
The attorney representing both a Republican and Democrat in Commonwealth Court cases seeking to have Peter V. Marcoline III removed from the May 21 primary ballot in the race for Washington County judge said he is in the process of withdrawing the objections.
James R. Jeffries said early Tuesday afternoon, “Withdrawal will be today or tomorrow, and that will be that. I will fax it to the Commonwealth Court filing office.”
Marcoline, who lives in South Strabane Township, has a Washington mailing address, which appears on both his voter registration card and nominating petitions. His challengers cited that as a defect in the nominating petitions.
Jeffries said he discussed case law regarding the address Friday with Marcoline’s campaign manager, Christopher Blackwell.
“It’s been liberally construed,” Jeffries said. “I don’t feel it’s right for my clients to pursue Mr. Marcoline. It’s resolved, it’s fine.”
Marcoline said he saw the same type of address information on the nominating petitions of Lane Turturice, and noted there was no attempt to remove Turturice from the ballot.
Turturice, a Republican judicial nominee in 2011, is making his second run for Washington County judge.
“I applaud the Democratic and Republican petitioners for withdrawing the challenges in the face of controlling Commonwealth Court case law, which clearly indicates that their challenges were improperly filed,” Marcoline said in a statement.
“I fully expect both petitioners to publicly retract their statements that I improperly completed and circulated my judicial petitions and issue an appropriate apology.”
Robert K. McGrady of Centerville, a Democrat, and Washington County Republican Party Chairman William Merrell, petitioners in the Marcoline case, plan to proceed with their challenges against the nominating petitions of Thomas Fallert of Peters Township.
Petition-signers were to include the name of the municipality in which they reside. In cases where a signer on Fallert’s petitions wrote a mailing address of McMurray or Venetia, the names of the post offices were crossed out and the designation Peters Township was substituted without the signers’ initials.
Merrell also questioned the circulating of petitions by a single person in multiple locations on the same day.
Fallert noted that Commonwealth Court ordered that he be served a copy of the challenges against him before 5 p.m. Monday, but that he didn’t receive them until Tuesday morning.
“Late service will be an issue at the hearing,” he said. “I consider the petition objections to be offensive, defamatory and completely meritless, and they will be vigorously defended.”
Commonwealth Court has scheduled a hearing in Fallert’s case for April 3 in Pittsburgh.
Eight candidates are seeking nominations for two Washington County judgeships in the May 21 primary election, created by the retirements last year of jurists Paul Pozonsky and Janet Moschetta Bell.