Occupy Philly congressional candidate opts for write in when faced with ballot challenge

The member of Occupy Philadelphia who is challenging Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz won’t be on the ballot in the Democratic primary.  Instead he has decided to take the write-in route.  

Nate Kleinman says he decided to withdraw his nominating petitions for the 13th district, which includes parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, for strategic reasons.  Attorneys challenging the signatures on Kleinman’s petitions wanted him to pay their bills if a judge tossed his name from the ballot.

“It made no sense for me to continue fighting in court to stay on the ballot and give the voters a chance to decide who is going to represent them in congress so I will be running as a write in candidate on April 24th,” said Kleinman.  “The rest of the campaign will be dedicated to educating voters how to spell my name and they will have to write me in if they want me to win.”

Kleinman plans to run a truly grass-roots campaign.

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“I’m to going to be knocking on doors throughout the district going to community events, I am going to continue to work with the Occupy Philadelphia movement to feed the homeless, to convert vacant lots into productive community gardens,” he said.

Kleinman says he will continue working with Occupy Philadelphia as he runs for office but says he will run on his own platform.

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