‘We did it for everybody’
Brandon Hudock was daunted by the prospect of gathering tens of thousands of signatures to get his name on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate.
But late last month, a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary restraining order that reduced the number of signatures to 5,000 until the state Legislature enacts a permanent law.
Judge Lawrence F. Stengel wrote in a three-page order if the Legislature fails to act, his restraining order will remain in effect, and he set limits for the signatures required for the ballot in years other than this election cycle, such as governor, lieutenant governor and state appellate court judges and justices.
Stengel convened four conferences with the participants, including the Constitution, Libertarian and Green parties and the Pennsylvania Department of State, in a lawsuit brought in Philadelphia a few years ago. With deadlines looming, the minor parties sought a preliminary injunction through an emergency motion.
“I feel like there is someone watching down over me,” Hudock said Thursday, expressing thankfulness for the court ruling.
The Washington County man learned of the decision from an email sent by Carl Romanelli, a Green Party plaintiff in the federal suit, who told him, “We didn’t do it for us, we did it for everybody.”
Hudock had a goal of 60,000 signatures, but that figure was self-imposed. The Pennsylvania Department of State website lists 21,775 as the number of valid signatures required for third-party and independent candidates to have their names placed on the Nov. 8 ballot.
But Hudock said he wanted more than enough signatures to withstand a challenge from anyone seeking to shut down his candidacy.
Hudock, 40, who has a landscaping and horticulture business off East Beau Street, is making his first run for political office after protesting against the candidacy of Donald Trump outside the United States Capitol and White House this past spring. Besides his own place of business, he’s been seeking others to aid him in gathering signatures from those, regardless of political party, who are registered to vote in Pennsylvania.
The McMurray resident, a former Republican, said of the U.S. Senate, “I know usually it’s a millionaire’s club. I know I still have a long way to go. I actually hate politics.”
The courts also ruled no candidate or political party should be assessed fines or a ballot-access fee, because those have a chilling effect on minor-party and independent candidates.
The deadline for independent and third-party candidates to circulate and file nomination papers in Harrisburg is Aug. 1. Winning nominations in April were Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and, on the Democratic ballot, Gov. Tom Wolf’s former chief of staff Katie McGinty.