send to a friend | print | comment

A potential spoiler needs signatures first

In the closely-watched 15th District House race, Democrats hope they finally have a serious challenger for incumbent Republican Charlie Dent in Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan. And if the race ends up being a close one on Election Day, there could be a spoiler in the works—independent Jake Towne.

Towne, an engineer, has a political identity rooted in Tea Party activism, appearing on Fox News‘ “Freedom Watch.” Unlike most candidates identified with the Tea Party in Pennsylvania, though, Towne isn’t running under the Republican banner. In trying to get on the ballot as an independent, Towne is taking the more difficult path—few states make it as harder than Pennsylvania to run as an independent.

But if he gets on the ballot, even an underfunded candidate could tap into a political climate wary of both parties. In an internal poll memo released by the Dent campaign last month, eight percent said they would vote for a Libertarian candidate. And in a close race, such a showing by Towne could potentially pull enough conservatives away from Dent to tilt the race in Callahan’s favor (Dent also faces a primary challenge from Tea Party activist Mathew Benol).

In an interview, Towne played down the idea of his candidacy being a spoiler for Dent.

“I’ve spoken to Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “Neither are excited to vote for their party’s candidate. … I think you’ll see voters from the left and right supporting me.”

First, though, Towne needs signatures, and a lot of them. State law requires independent candidates to gather signatures equaling two percent of the highest vote-getter in the last election, in this case the 181,000 votes Dent received in 2008—meaning Towne needs more than 3,600 signatures by August. With Republicans likely to challenge his signatures and get him off the ballot, far more would be needed avoid a challenge, and Towne vowed that he has a volunteer network that can collect more than 10,000.

“It will all come down to the volunteers and how many signatures they collect,” he said.

February 22, 2010 at 8:15 am

--Donald Hoegg

Tags: Charlie Dent, Jake Towne, John Callahan, Mathew Benol, PA-15

comments

comments [5] | post a comment