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Report: Onorato challenges Hoeffel’s nominating petitions

Democrat Dan Onorato is looking to keep gubernatorial rival Joe Hoeffel off the May primary ballot.

The Tribune-Review reports that Onorato has filed a ballot challenge against Hoeffel, who has at times been particularly critical of Onorato’s positions on social issues while seeking to position himself as the liberal standard-bearer in the race.

Hoeffel’s campaign filed for a spot on the ballot with more than 7,000 signatures last week; 2,000 are needed, including at least 100 from 10 different counties. Onorato’s campaign managed to file more than 20,000 signatures.

Hoeffel’s co-campaign manger Lauren Townsend called the ballot challenge “cowardly.”

“Joe Hoeffel is the best candidate with the best ideas,” Townsend told the newspaper. “Dan Onorato is clearly scared and now he’s turned desperate. This action is cowardly. We’re totally confident our petitions are good.”

March 17, 2010 at 8:15 am

--pa2010.com Staff

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  1. leftylucie

    Mar 17th, 2010

    This just shows what Onorato thinks the Democratic party should stand for: no competition of ideas, no change and no reform. Onorato is not cowardly; he is owned by the corporate interests. No true progressive could support someone who tramples on the rights of the people to a choice in an election and I’d like to hear those people defend their backing of this tool of big money.

  2. Bob B.

    Mar 17th, 2010

    Seriously Dan? Time to reconsider Joe Hoeffel as a serious candidate for Governor if he’s got the “supposed” front runner running scared!

  3. Jake

    Mar 17th, 2010

    And Dan Onorato wonders why committees across the state are rejecting his candidacy in droves?

    It will be a sad day for Pennsylvania if the king of pay-to-play, Dan the tax man, becomes our governor just because Ed Rendell could raise him a ton of money.

  4. leftylucie

    Mar 17th, 2010

    Word is that he is also challenging the petitions of Tony Williams. This is how big money corrupts democracy. Both Williams and Joe are going to spend money just to make sure that citizens have a choice in who represents them. Make no mistake. This is exactly how bankers on Wall Street come to own our Congress and pay themselves hundreds of billions in bonuses after they all went bankrupt and raided our future. If the Democratic Party cannot stand for democracy what good is it?

  5. David Diano

    Mar 17th, 2010

    With Hoeffel having over 3 times as many petition signatures as required, Dan appears to be wasting his time.

    Maybe he’s just trying to eat up Hoeffel resources to defend the petitions.

    Lucie-
    Challenging Tony Williams seems odd. Williams candidacy appeared to be a ploy (by Rendell) to hurt Hoeffel and help Dan. There’s no reason to get rid of Williams while Hoeffel is still on the ballot.

  6. Reality

    Mar 17th, 2010

    Wow…people really don’t understand the petition process. David, I am especially surprised at you — you should know its not the total number of signatures, but how many you have in different counties. A candidate needs to have 10 counties with at least 100 signatures, not just more than 2,000.

    As a second thing, no one challenged Williams’ gubernatorial petitions, but Williams did challenge his state Senate opponent’s.

    I look forward to reading the outraged posts….

  7. WESTPADEM6

    Mar 17th, 2010

    Man… sounds like Dan is scared.

  8. Piper

    Mar 17th, 2010

    Word is that the Hoeffel campaign has well over 100 signatures in more than 15 counties. That means Onorato would have to knock off six of those counties. I agree with others who say it seems like a waste of effort, and just bad PR for Onorato.

  9. JP_Montco

    Mar 17th, 2010

    Onorato is almost surely whistling in the wind here. If anything, Hoeffel is a professional politician and surely has this sort of thing tied down pretty well here.

  10. Brett

    Mar 19th, 2010

    Hoeffel is going to give Onorato a run for his money, just watch.

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