Pa. Supreme Court knocks Guzzardi off ballot

Ardmore businessman and conservartive Bob Guzzardi won’t challenge Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett in the May 20th Republican primary after all.

The state Supreme Court has overruled a Commonwealth Court decision permitting Guzzardi to remain in the race despite the fact that he failed to file his required statement of financial interests with the State Ethics Commission on time.

Guzzardi had said he’d been misinformed about the filing requirement, but the Supreme Court found that his failure to file a timely statement is a “fatal defect” that will end his candidacy.

“I’m surprised,” Guzzardi said in a telephone interview. “By my calculation the Republican party has spent $60,000 to remove a Republican from a Republican primary ballot, depriving Republican voters of a choice.”

Megan Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the state Republican committee didn’t comment on Guzzardi’s cost estimate, saying only that party remains focused on “working to reelect the Corbett-Cawley ticket so that they can continue to move Pennsylvania forward in a positive direction.”