Independents struggle to stay on ballot

Democrats and Republicans are filing challenges to remove potential competitors.

All the third-party candidates in Pennsylvania who are seeking to be listed on the November ballot for governor and U.S. Senate are being challenged. Major party candidates in some tight Congressional races are also seeking to boot off challengers who they think may end up drawing away votes.

Third party candidates say they have a tough enough time collecting the required signatures to get on the ballot. Now they have to contend with what seems like, an automatic signature challenge from at least one of the major candidates.

Jim Schneller is an independent conservative running in the the 7th congressional district. The campaign of Republican Pat Meehan has helped file a court challenge to Schneller’s candidacy.

Schneller says he’s disappointed.

“Every time one of the big parties uses this tactic, the message goes out again to every citizens of this state that challenges are some kind of appropriate or typical part of the election process and that was not the case until recently and that should not be the case.”

Supporters of Democrat Bryan Lentz have been happy to have another conservative in the race to attract voters away from Meehan. A challenge has also been filed against Tom Lingenfelter, an independent candidate running in the 8th District.