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Murtha challenger secures place on November ballot
Staff writer
The on-again, off-again Republican candidacy of William Russell appears to have cleared another hurdle with more than enough write-in votes in the April 22 primary to get his name on the ballot in November in the 12th Congressional District.
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Murtha, who had no opposition in the primary, also notified elections offices of various designations voters might use on the Republican ticket when casting write-in ballots for him. He received just 93 Republican votes in Cambria County, his home and, more recently, Russell's home.
Russell, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, was at the Pentagon Wednesday and cited a law prohibiting political campaigning while working as a federal employee as the reason he could not be interviewed.
A campaign spokeswoman in Johnstown did not return a phone call.
A Murtha spokesman wrote via e-mail that the congressman's campaign had no comment.
Washington County's canvass board started with Allenport and will work its way through the 67 municipalities and 185 precincts alphabetically, winding up with Washington and West Pike Run 2.
Larry Spahr, Washington County elections director, said tallies for write-in results might be available as early as Friday. There were 764 write-in votes cast in the 12th Congressional District.
To win a nomination with write-in votes, a candidate must garner enough signatures to equal or surpass the number of signatures required for a nominating petition. Russell fell just short of 1,000 valid signatures on the nominating petitions he filed in February.
Russell raised $247,000 through a campaign committee, sending out several mailers instructing Republicans in the nine-county district on how to cast a write-in vote.
Meanwhile, the Greene County elections office also continued to work Wednesday to complete the canvass of last Tuesday's primary election.
However, the initial count of write-in votes for the 12th Congressional District shows Russell receiving 285 write-in votes on the Republican ballot, said Frances Pratt, election office director. Murtha received 16 write-in votes, she said.
The office has not yet completed its election canvass and results remain unofficial.
For the 12th Congressional District, Greene County had 393 write-in votes on the Republican ballot and 140 on the Democratic ballot. The elections office hopes to have the canvass completed late today, Pratt said.
In the 46th Legislative District, Republican Frank Yuvan was claiming the Republican write-in nomination and will face state Rep. Jesse White, a Cecil Township Democrat, in the fall.
"I'm operating under the assumption that he will be certified as the Republican nominee," White, who also sought a Republican write-in, said Wednesday.
White also claimed he was denigrated by automated "robo-calls" reported to him by Republicans who had received them.
Yuvan said Wednesday, "The only robo-calls I've made were to introduce myself to the voters in my district. I'm not aware of any negative or smearing campaigns. Most people don't listen to robo-calls long enough for those to be effective."
Yuvan received about 531 Republican votes in Washington and Beaver counties to White's 313, according to the GOP candidate's unofficial totals. White was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
In addition to write-ins the 12th Congressional and 46th Legislative districts, Washington County Republicans also had an opportunity to elect a fifth member of the state committee. Just four candidates filed for the ballot.
Staff writer Bob Niedbala contributed to this report.
Yuvan''s lying : 5/3/2008
I got a call from that Yuvan guy plus some woman slamming the Jesse White. This Yuvan kid is lying right out of the gate to voters. Nice.
