PA dems indicted for dirty tricks against Nader and Romanelli

Remember when Nader got thrown off the ballot in 2004, and Romanelli the same in 2006?  Seems like it may have something to do with the fact that at least  three million dollars worth of taxpayer moneywas spent by 12 PA dem officials, including the former speaker of the PA house, who paid their staffs big bonuses for political work, including ballot issues.  These officials have now been indicted.  

While Attorney General Tom Corbett (R) said more arrests are expected and that his office’s yearlong investigation into the other legislative caucuses is continuing.

Some background:

Hoping to run for U.S. Senate in 2006, Romanelli, a former Green Party candidate, had collected 93,000 signatures on his nomination petition, well over the 67,000 he needed. However, a challenge led by the state Democratic Party challenged enough of the signatures that he was booted from the ballot and, during drawn-out legal saga, saddled, along with one of his lawyers, with more than $80,000 in court costs and penalties.

But state Attorney General Tom Corbett announced last week charges against 12 people involved in the state House Democratic Caucus for illegally giving state-funded bonuses to state employees for performing partisan political work, like campaigning and challenging nomination petitions. Corbett specifically drew attention to Romanelli’s case, which he called one of "two outstanding examples of misappropriation of taxpayers’ resources."

From the Green Party press release:

In the Pennsylvania scandal, twelve Democratic officials have been indicted for paying staffers big taxpayer-funded bonuses for their efforts to keep 2004 independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and 2006 Green candidate Carl Romanelli, who ran for the US Senate, off the Pennsylvania ballot. The twelve charged with misusing $4 million for partisan campaign work include the former Pennsylvania House Majority Whip, the current House Majority Whip, and the Chief of Staff of the House Majority Leader.

Mr. Romanelli’s lawyers are asking for a new hearing regarding the appeal of the $80,000 in legal costs that were assessed against him after Democratic Party lawyers succeeded in persuading a court to remove him from the 2006 ballot. Democrats have claimed that the Nader and Romanelli campaigns falsified signatures on their ballot petitions.

Mr. Romanelli was blocked from defending the validity of the signatures in 2006. Nader attorney Oliver Hall noted that "only a tiny number of signatures on the Nader petitions — 687 or 1.3 percent of the total — were counted as ‘forgeries’ by their signers, and in the words of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas Saylor, there is ‘no evidence’ to support Democrats’ claims that the Nader campaign was even aware of such signatures. Furthermore, no allegation of fraud was ever raised against Romanelli’s petitions. There is, however, evidence that the Nader petitions were the target of widespread and deliberate sabotage: specifically, petition circulators discovered and removed about 7,000 obviously fake signatures prior to submitting the petitions." (Philadelphia Inquirer, July 17)

I hope that Romannelli not only wins his fight against the ridiculous fines assessed his campaign by corrupt Democratic judges, but that Nader and Romanelli sue the pants off the PA democratic party.  

Even Nixon used campaign funds for his dirty tricks.  PA dems had the audacity to use hundreds of staffers on taxpayer time to do their dirty work.