What if they they threw an election and nobody came?
We're not talking about voters.
We're talking about Democratic candidates.
To the surprise of just about no one, other than maybe Delaware County Democratic Party leaders, a county judge yesterday tossed the three endorsed Dem candidates off the May primary ballot. Judge James Proud ruled their nominating petitions were in fact incorrectly filed. Specifically, they failed to file the required statements of financial disclosure with the county clerk. No matter that they correctly filed with the board of elections.
A technicality? Maybe. But those are the rules. And these three Democrats didn't follow them.
County Democratic Party Chairman David Landau vows an appeal, first to Commonwealth Court and perhaps all the way to the state Supreme Court if necessary.
So be it.
In the meantime, Democrats may need to try to muster enough write-in votes in the primary to get on the November general election ballot. It is believed they will need at least 250 write-ins to make it.
In the meantime, there is more than a little grumbling from within Delco Democrats about this latest black eye for a party that has not been able to get a candidate elected to County Council for more than three decades.
Hard to blame them.
Comments
Even with a slight Democrat majority in the county, if the D's keep making these baby mistakes it's going to remain an all Republican council for the foreseeable future. Andy Reilly had it right when he said, "If the Democrats can't even follow the election rules, how can the voters trust them to run the county?"
The time, money and effort to take this to the Supreme Court should have been used to win elections.