Court rules on rejected 49th District race petitions
Former Charleroi Borough manager Donn Henderson’s candidacy in the Democratic race to succeed State Rep. Peter J. Daley took a step closer to the April 26 primary ballot.
Commonwealth Court, in a per curiam order Thursday, granted his request to have his name placed on the ballot as long as a sworn affidavit from each circulator accompanies, by next Tuesday, each of his nomination petitions stating all relevant information was attached while people were signing.
The court also noted that, if the petitions and affidavits are submitted as the court ordered, anyone objecting to them has until March 1 to file a challenge.
Henderson’s attorney, Karen Balaban, maintained when her client downloaded his nominating petitions from the Department of State website, they were printed on only one side. Instructions specify that information about the candidate must appear on one side of a sheet while notarization of the circulator’s signature appear on the other side.
Henderson, a Fallowfield Township resident, and Monongahela Mayor Robert Kepics found their candidacies in limbo with the Bureau of Elections marking each man’s status as “rejected.” Kepics said he would have former Washington County district attorney Steve Toprani file his case with Commonwealth Court.
Also filing for the 49th District 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.
Daley, who has held the office since the 1980s, announced earlier this year that he did not intend to seek another two-year term.
On Wednesday, Washington & Jefferson College political science department head Joseph DiSarro petitioned the court to allow his nominating petitions stand. DiSarro is running for 18th Congressional District delegate and alternate delegate to the Republican Party’s national convention in Cleveland. The court had not ruled on his case as of late Thursday afternoon.