Democratic hopefuls headed to court
The Pennsylvania Department of State’s Bureau of Elections rejected the nominating petitions of two men seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 49th Legislative District seat now held by retiring state Rep. Peter J. Daley, but they each hope to have their day in court.
Robert Kepics, Monongahela mayor, and Donn Henderson, former Charleroi Borough manager, filed petitions in Harrisburg this week that were marked “rejected” because the sheets of paper were filled out on only one side while the other side was left blank.
In addition, some of Kepics’ petitions bore the number of the 63rd Legislative District, which is in Indiana County, although the incorrect number was crossed out.
Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Department of State, said Wednesday that using both sides of a petition is “something the department tries to be very clear about. On side one, you have information about what candidate you are signing for. On side two is the notarization, where the circulator certifies where he or she gathered those signatures.”
The law requires that someone challenging a rejection for state candidacy file a complaint in mandamus with Commonwealth Court, which is what Karen Balaban, Henderson’s attorney, did Wednesday.
Balaban, a Waynesburg native, called the alleged deficiency “a mere technicality. It might be much ado about nothing. There’s nothing in the statute that says it has to be two-sided.”
Henderson downloaded petitions from the Department of State’s website, and a single side printed, according to Balaban, who said she is negotiating the matter with the election bureau.
Murren said a Commonwealth Court judge may require petition circulators to testify or submit affidavits.
Kepics said his attorney, Steve Toprani, accompanied him to the state capital Tuesday, the petition-filing deadline, and was working on Kepics’ court case while the mayor drove them home in dicey weather.
“I don’t know why they had me in the 63rd District,” Kepics said. “I had everything on there in the 49th.”
Murren was besieged with media inquiries Tuesday, when an email from the Observer-Reporter went unanswered, but when she returned a call Wednesday, she said the mistake about the district would be corrected if a Commonwealth Court judge orders the Department of State to accept his petitions, which were filled out on only one side.
Also filing for the April 26 primary in the 49th District before Tuesday’s deadline were Democrats Alan D. Benyak of Carroll Township, Randy J. Barli of Coal Center, Brendan Anthony Garay of California and Mark L. Alterici of Charleroi, and Republicans Melanie Patterson of Washington Township, Fayette County, and Donald “Bud” Cook of West Pike Run Township.