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Wilkes-Barre activist charged party leaders used state workers to challenge petition.
Romanelli
A federal judge has dismissed political activist Carl Romanelli’s lawsuit that sought monetary damages from Democratic Party leaders who illegally used state employees to challenge Romanelli’s 2006 nominating petition for the U.S. Senate.
In an opinion filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo said Romanelli had presented evidence that state workers were illegally paid on state time to mount the challenge that knocked Romanelli, a Green Party candidate, off the ballot.
Their actions, even if illegal, did not deprive Romanelli of a federal constitutional right, however, because the staffers utilized a legitimate state law to challenge and invalidate thousands of signatures on the petitions, Caputo said.
Romanelli, 51, of Wilkes-Barre, filed suit in July 2010 against former state representatives William DeWeese and Michael Veon and numerous other members of the state Democratic Party, alleging they violated his constitutional right to free speech and due process.
The suit was predicated on the “Bonusgate” scandal that led to charges against DeWeese, Veon and others who were accused of using state employees to do political work. That investigation revealed some of those employees had worked to oust Romanelli.
In order to prevail in his federal suit, Romanelli had to show that he was deprived of a constitutional federal right.
In his ruling, Caputo said that ballot access has been recognized as an important aspect of voting rights, but it is not an unfretted access. States have the right to set requirements candidates must meet.
Signatures negated
In Romanelli’s case, he was required to collect 67,070 signatures to get on the ballot. He obtained 94,544 signatures, but roughly 69,000 were negated by the challenge filed by Democratic Party leaders, resulting in his removal.
The problem for Romanelli is that the challenge filed by the Democrats was valid as there were problems with his petitions. The fact that the party illegally utilized workers to collect the information used to negate the signatures does not matter for purposes of the civil case.
“When the validity of the signatures is challenged in accordance with state procedure, and the signatures are found to be in some way insufficient, it does not violate any constitution right to deny the potential candidate access to the ballot,” Caputo said.
Because he could not show he suffered a constitutional deprivation, the suit must be dismissed, Caputo said.
“We are pleased that the court agreed with our position that Mr. Romanelli was not deprived of any federal right, therefore he had no legitimate legal claim,” Brett Marcy, communications director for the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus, said in an email.
Lawrence Otter, Romanelli’s attorney, said Thursday he is disappointed by Caputo’s ruling decision, but understands the judge was obligated to adhere to the strict interpretation of federal law.
“This gist of our complaint is that he had a right to run for office. Certainly they had a right to challenge his petition, but they didn’t have a right to do that with taxpayer money,” Otter said. “I’m disheartened this did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation.”
Latest adverse ruling
The decision is the latest adverse court ruling Romanelli has suffered in the battle over Senate run. Several state courts upheld his removal from the ballot. He was also ordered to pay more than $80,000 in legal fees Democratic Party representatives spent challenging his nominating petitions.
Romanelli said Thursday he has no regrets, “despite the beating I’ve taken over the past five years.”
“The biggest disappointment for me is no where in the public record do we have a court saying this is patently wrong, you cannot do this to your citizens,” Romanelli said.
Romanelli vowed the adverse rulings will not deter him from continuing to speak out and fight for the rights of third party candidates.
“It will not silence me. I will continue to talk about corruption and will continue to talk about the issues,” he said.