Green Party Candidate Thrown off Senate Ballot.

[Cathyclysmic]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06268/724887-100.stm

<snip>HARRISBURG -- A state judge today ordered the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate removed from ballot because the party did not have enough valid signatures in its nominating petitions.<snip>


Poor Ricky. what will he do now? :evilgrin:

[LoZoccolo]

1. YES! n/t

[Straight Shooter]

2. Yeeeeee-HAW!!

:woohoo:

[saracat]

3. Probably didn't pay enough per vote!

[grytpype]

4. Heh heh... bad news for Rick the Prick!

He worked so hard to get the Green on the ballot, too.

[durrrty libby]

5. Woo-Hoo

Poor Ricky can't even buy a vote!

:bounce: :freak:

[TrogL]

6. Who's Santorum going to debate with?

A non-candidate?

[BootinUp]

7. BOOYAH!!! Take that!!! Santorum is history.

Its kind of sad, since he was the source of so much material here at DU.

[SteppingRazor]

8. Excellent...

Were this Green Party candidate anything but a vote-siphoning toadie of Santorum, I'd be somewhat upset by this. But as things stand, throwing this candidate off the ballot only helps democracy.

[dreamsvsnightmares]

21. I agree. But this makes me so scared and sad that our political system

now revolves around who has the most money and who has the less ethics. This is one
person who doesn't want to bother placing a vote this time because I believe mine will not count

[Bridget Burke]

27. We've been getting that "don't bother to vote because it won't count"....

Talking Point lately.

Sorry--it won't work.

[tabasco]

41. Hahahahahahahahaha!! That dog won't hunt, troll.

I knew one would show up in this thread.

I hope you don't vote.

[GreenPartyVoter]

45. We still have to vote. Just think of how many people were shocked when **

'won' again. It was their understanding o fthe reality of feelings on the ground versus the 'win' ** got that woke a lot of people up to the fact that something fishy is going on with our election system. Before it sucked because it was heavily weighted toward people with money and clout, but now we don't even have that.

[IronLionZion]

9. BWAHAHA

Think of all the money sick rick's supporters lost on this. I'm loving it. This is one election we will definitely win. They can smear and slander all they want but they can't steal this one if we don't let them.

[rodeodance]

10. was 8,931 signatures shy

Carl Romanelli's candidacy had been challenged by state Democrats. Mr. Romanelli's bid was backed by Sen. Rick Santorum, who hoped that Mr. Romanelli could siphon votes from his Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Bob Casey.

Commonwealth Court Judge James R. Kelley ruled that Mr. Romanelli, a railroad industry consultant from Wilkes-Barre, was 8,931 signatures shy of 67,070 he needed to qualify as a minor-party candidate.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

[calimary]

16. And they thought it was six-thousand signatures short.

More than EIGHT? And didn't the republi-CONS plunk down big bucks to push this?

Lordy, Lordy, I LOVE seeing the bad guys waste their money!!!

:toast:

[zonkers]

11. Booyah! Smackdown! Muthafucka don't try ta game da system.

Out with you.

[bluestateguy]

12. Boo-yah

Waaaaahhh!!!! I want to appeal!!!!! Waaaaaahhhhh!!!!! :cry: What'll I tell my friends back at the Limousine Liberal Country Club?

[maddezmom]

13. Good news

:thumbsup:

[onehandle]

14. Goodbye, Man on Dog. nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. Expect the trolls to appear any minute now

Blathering about how Casey is anti-choice and this is undemocratic and "we as liberals" should be "above that" and blah blah blah ad infinitum.

Come on, do your worst.

[WildEyedLiberal]

18. There's already a concern troll poll in GD

"Do Democrats support alternative progressive viewpoints????" or some garbage like that.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. Ooooo where where where? -nt

[annabanana]

19. ordinarily, I might be tempted.... but NOT THIS YEAR!!

Getting some leverage so we can put the brakes on this runaway train is much, much, much more important. Everything else can can fixed later...

(p.s. not the "liberals should be above that" stuff.... the anti-choice stuff)

[wicket]

20. The trolls really are coming out of the woodwork lately

Rove must be getting scared :rofl:

[tabasco]

42. Oh yes they're here! Bemoanng the death of democracy!

See post #21, for example.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

58. Yeah, didn't take long.

Some people here seem to be allergic to events that favor Democrats. Odd.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

17. I didn't realize this particular Green was 100% GOP funded

The Green Party made it sound like they accepted contributions from many sources, which they may do in other races. I missed the memo (Talking Points Memo, in fact - TPM Muckracker's Paul Kiel) that revealed the PA candidacy was completely bought and paid for by the GOP.

I join other DUers in celebrating the failure of this pathetic tactic.
:toast:

[maddezmom]

33. cheers back at you

:toast:

[LynneSin]

34. Here's another factoid about this particular Green Candidate

I think this was also on TPM's site.

When the democrats decided to challenge the signatures, the judge allowed representatives from the Democratic and Green parties to witness the challenge. The bulk of the volunteers were actually Santorum volunteers.

I hope that we democrats & greens can bury the hatchett. This candidate was an insult to what the Green Party stands for and even today Romanelli insists he's going to go to the next highest court. Ironically the other Green Candidate (Governor/Lt Gov) dropped out knowing that legal costs would wipe them out financially. So my question is this - who is paying for Romanelli's legal cost? Especially since at the end of August, Romanelli had $19 in his campaign coffers.

http://www.capitaleye.org/hotraces.asp?txtState=PA&cycle=2006

[LynneSin]

60. Actually he was about 99.95% GOP supported

When Mudracker did research into who paid for this guy to get his signatures, they did find that Romanelli tossed in like $50 to his own campaign.


Now, from again, what I've read there has been some small donations trickling into the candidate from legitimate Greens after this whole story broke; however, the bulk of it really is coming from the republicans.

The signature gathers also helped to gather signature for the Green Party candidate for governor but ultimately that candidate stepped down realizing that the legal fees would be pretty hefty to fight this. So the question that remains is this - who is paying Romanelli's legal fee. According to OpenSEcrets - the guy has $19 cash-on-hand in his campaign

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

22. YESSSSS!! This guy was 100% funded/helped by Santorum's people.

Bwahahahaha :rofl:. Nice try, pRicky.

[trogdor]

23. Booya.

Who's Santorum's campaign manager? Strong Bad?

[depakid]

24. Why do people automatically think

that the people who supposedly were going to vote for the Green candidate will actually vote for Casey?

If it it were me- I sure wouldn't.

[MGKrebs]

30. Probably because the Repubs seem to think that

the Green would siphon votes from the Dem, and were willing to spend a lot of money trying to make it happen. Although it's not certain, logic would lead one to believe that the reverse would be true also.
A. More Green votes = less Dem votes,
then
B. Less Green votes = more Dem votes.

[Art_from_Ark]

54. Perhaps because of the John Anderson experience

In the 1980 presidential election, John Anderson, Republican congressman from Illinois, did an end run around Jimmy Carter as the "American Independent Party" nominee, posing as a progressive candidate to siphon off votes from the left side of Carter's base. Anderson, who vowed to become a force in the next presidential election (and had actually qualified for Federal matching funds), was never heard from again.

Anderson got my vote, which otherwise would have gone to Carter (I'm still kicking myself for that one). And I wasn't the only would-be Carter voter he fooled.

[MGKrebs]

61. Actually, Anderson became involved with Instant Runoff Voting.

He was (and still may be) Chair of the Center for Voting and Democracy,
( www.fairvote.org ). IRV is a way to open up ballots to multiple candidates and still get a majority result without having multiple elections. It's an interesting concept, and one fitting for a former third party candidate.

P.S.- I am embarressed to admit that I didn't vote for Carter either.

[Art_from_Ark]

62. I guess I should rephrase my statement then

"...never heard from as a presidential candidate again".

[skipos]

25. It must bum Greens out that they can't help Santorum get elected

I guess now they'll focus on helping Lieberman get elected in CT.

[Ignacio Upton]

28. What's the Green candidate's name in CT?

Also, who the fuck would run against Lamont and complain that he's a DINO? Then again...we're talking about a party that fielded someone to run against Paul Wellstone.

[skipos]

29. Ralph Ferrucci is the Green candidate hoping to help Lieberman win

Pretty lame, huh?

[Captain Hilts]

31. Exactly. Like Nader in 2000.....nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

46. Because, yeah, all Greens are really covert Pug operatives.

[skipos]

47. I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but

Republicans love giving money to Greens and Greens love taking their money. Greens and Republicans share the goal of making Democrats lose, whether it be moderates like Casey or progressives like Lamont.

[BigDDem]

32. Maybe Ralph can come to the rescue.

[AIJ Alom]

35. Probably 8,901 Freepers managed to sign twice....Thus cancelling out the

Republican Party's second candidate for the same office.

[LynneSin]

38. Actually that would be about 35,000 freepers

There was close to 100k signatures gathered and the guy still came up 9k short of the 67k signatures he needed.

To be honest, Pennsylvania is kinda sucky when it comes to 3rd parties, but if Santorum was going to be the savior of 3rd party candidates then she should have been fighthing for the Constitution & Libertarian parties - they wanted to field senate candidates too

[AIJ Alom]

48. OMG ! Thanks for the correction. JEEZ LOUISE !! n/t

[Avidor]

36. More Green Party Scandals... in Minnesota

Green Party Gone Bad Blog:

http://greenpartygonebad.blogspot.com/

Notes from all 8 days of the trial of former Minneapolis Councilman Dean Zimmermann convicted of bribery:

http://minneapolisconfidential.blogspot.com/

Green Party's Feedlotgate:

http://www.knappster.org/gangrene.html

[LynneSin]

37. I'm so glad that the Greens ran a candidate for 2002 US Senate in Minn.

I mean, that state surely needed a liberal candidate on the ballot with Paul Wellstone as the democrat

:sarcasm:

[EarthNeedsHope]

39. Many Greens like Winona Laduke (sp) were against it

NT

[LynneSin]

40. I think that was the beginning of the end for me

I really try to respect the fact that they want their candidates on the ballot and have that alternative voice. But to go after what was one of the most liberal candidates in the Senate was kinda heartbreaking to me. It was a tight race and clearly showed that the Greens preferred being the spoiler over making a real change

[EarthNeedsHope]

57. Just know those Greens don't represent them all

I would be shocked to see Greens go after someone like Bernie Sanders or Denis Kucinich or something.

[eridani]

52. In Minnesota, they were REQUIRED to field a candidate

Either that, or allow a Republican or some other non-progressive to fill the slot. They chose to run a no-name instead of La Duke and did not do any campaigning.

[DeepModem Mom]

43. Well a lot of Republicans wasted a whole lot of money. nt

[BushOut06]

44. Fuck the Green Party

Sure, in a perfect world it would be nice if we could have various political parties, each with a legitimate chance. If we didn't have a winner-take all system in this country, the Green Party might be a worthwhile party.

Like it or not, this is a TWO-PARTY system. The only thing that third parties manage to do is to draw votes away from the Dems and GOP. If it hadn't been for Ralph Nader, we would have never even had to go through the whole 2000 fiasco with Florida. It should have never even gotten that far.

If you're unhappy with the Democratic Party, voting Green is NOT the answer. Change has to occur from within, by promoting progressive candidates in local elections and state primaries. While it may seem like a noble cause to vote your conscious, in reality you're only giving the other party extra votes.

Also, I have NO respect for a third party that would accept donations from another established party.

[okole1169]

49. Oh well...so much for democracy

I guees only 2 parties is a good thing?

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

50. Yep. We live in the real world here in Pennsylvania.

You play the hand you are dealt. It's a two party system...winner take all.


Strange, isn't it, that Santorum wasn't too concerned about getting the Libertarian or Constitution party candidates on the PA Senate ballot. Wonder why? :think:

[LynneSin]

51. Did it matter - with Carl Romanelli it was still a 2 party system

When you're bought and paid for entirely by Rick Santorum's cronies - it doesn't really matter what your party registration is - you're working for the republicans

[skipos]

53. The multiparty race in CT should cheer you up

and Greens are working hard to help Lieberman there too.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

55. No, of course not! But the other parties should be

the Constitution Party and the Libertarian Party.

Don't you think it would be better this way?

[LoZoccolo]

56. Yes, a thousand times, yes. n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. If this really was a Republican setup, the Greens should have vetted their

candidate more carefully.

Most of the rank-and-file Greens I know would not like the idea of a Republican stealth candidate.