Republicans attempting to remove Vodvarka from GOP primary for U.S. Senate
Allegheny County man has run for office multiple times
Associated Press
The candidacy for an Allegheny County man once again attempting a run for U.S. Senate is in jeopardy after hundreds of signatures on his nominating petitions submitted to get on the Republican primary ballot were challenged in Commonwealth Court.
Three registered Republicans and their attorneys filed paperwork before Tuesday’s deadline to challenge the candidacy of Joseph Vodvarka of Robinson Township in an attempt to get him removed from the ballot for the April 23 primary.
The challenge claims there are multiple defects with Vodvarka’s nominating petitions and is attempting to strike 572 of the 2,439 signatures the candidates and his surrogates accumulated, which would put him below the 2,000 needed to run for U.S. Senate.
In the nearly 2,000-page filing, the challenge mainly claims there were issues with the petition’s circulators and problems with individual signatories, over whether they are not registered to vote, aren’t Republicans or gave incorrect information.
The three objectors are Andrew Ritter Jr. of Camp Hill, Ashley Boop of Lancaster and Richard Tems of Doylestown. Their attorneys who filed the challenge are Walter Zimolong III and James Fitzpatrick III of Villanova. Zimolong did not respond to a phone call seeking comment on the challenge.
Vodvarka could not be reached for comment Wednesday and it was not clear whether he had an attorney.
It’s not known when Commonwealth Court would rule on the challenge to Vodvarka’s candidacy. But if the challenge is successful in removing Vodvarka from the ballot, it would possibly leave only David McCormick on the Republican primary ballot to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in the general election. Republican Brandi Tomasetti and Democrat William Parker were granted extensions and have until 5 p.m. today to file their nominating petitions.
Vodvarka, 80, has run for the U.S. Senate several times before and been removed from the ballot on multiple occasions, including in 2010 when he was a Democrat and in 2018 when he was a Republican. Vodvarka campaigned as a Democrat for races in 2012 and again in 2016, when he was initially removed from the ballot only to be restored at the last minute by the state Supreme Court. Afterward, he changed his party affiliation to run as a Republican.