Republicans seek to knock Corbett challenger off the ballot

As I expected, the state Republican Party has gone to court to challenge the nominating petitions of Ardmore businessman Bob Guzzardi, who filed to run against Gov. Tom Corbett in the party’s May 20 primary.

Guzzardi told me in an interview last week he’d filed more than 2,900 signatures to enter the race. He’d exceeded the legal requirement of getting the signatures of 2,000 registered Republicans, with at least 100 each from 10 different counties. I wrote in a piece yesterday that mainstream Republicans would love to snuff out Guzzardi’s campaign in its infancy by mounting a petition challenge.

The Associated Press reports that the challenge by four Republican voters asserts that Guzzardi’s petitions have defects, such as signatures of people not registered to vote, which leave him with the required number of signatures in only eight counties.

The challenge of Guzzardi’s petitions was filed Tuesday afternoon, only hours before the deadline. The case will be heard in Commonwealth Court.