Democrats get a third-party hopeful knocked off Pennsylvania ballot, as Cornel West tries to get on
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Democrats in Pennsylvania have won legal challenges to keep the left-wing Party for Socialism and Liberation out of the state’s presidential race, at least for now, while an attorney with close ties to the Republican Party works to help an independent candidate Cornel West Go for it.
The lawsuits are part of a series of partisan legal maneuvers surrounding third-party candidates seeking to get on the Pennsylvania ballot, including an ongoing challenge by Democrats to filing in Pennsylvania by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A Commonwealth judge on Tuesday agreed with two objections from the Democratic Party, ruling that the Socialist and Liberation Party’s filings were seriously flawed and banning the party’s presidential candidate, Claudia De la Cruz, from appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot in Pennsylvania.
Seven of the party’s 19 presidential electors named in the papers were registered Democrats, violating a political disaffiliation provision of the law, Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter wrote. Six voted in the April 23 Democratic primary.
“They literally voted in the Democratic primary and then turned around and became electors for a third-party candidate,” said Adam Bonin, a lawyer affiliated with the Democratic Party who filed one of the challenges. “You can’t do that.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation has not yet announced whether it will appeal.
Meanwhile, an attorney with longstanding ties to Republican candidates and causes went to court to argue that the secretary of state’s office under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro wrongly rejected West’s documents.
“I see no good reason why Mr. West would be kept off the ballot or otherwise prevent Pennsylvanians from voting for him,” attorney Matt Haverstick said in an interview. Haverstick declined to say who hired him or why.
The secretary of state’s office is contesting the legal challenge, saying the documentation did not include the required statements for 14 of the 19 presidential electors by the Aug. 1 deadline. broader effort A nationwide campaign is being conducted by conservative and Republican activists to promote the candidacy of the left-wing academic.
The November 5 election with the Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is expected to be close in Pennsylvania, where the state is tied with Illinois for fifth place with 19 electoral votes. They are likely to be the states with the most electoral votes of all the swing states.
Republicans and Democrats see third-party candidates as a threat to the critical support of their nominees, especially since Pennsylvania was carried by Democrat Joe Biden by a margin of tens of thousands of votes in 2020 and by Trump in 2016.
The Green Party Jill Stein and Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party filed petitions to get on the Pennsylvania presidential ballot uncontested.
The Democratic challenge to Kennedy is still pending, as is the Republican challenge to the Constitution Party. The Republicans have already won a challenge to the American Solidarity Party candidate.
In challenging De la Cruz, the judge cited a provision of state law that prohibits minor party candidates from registering with a major political party within 30 days of that year’s primary election.
Leadbetter, who is elected as a Republican, said it is clear that seven of the party’s 19 nominated presidential candidates were registered as Democrats both before and after the April 23 Pennsylvania primary.
De la Cruz’s lawyers argued that the party should be able to appoint new electors or simply accept only 12 of Pennsylvania’s 19 electors.
Leadbetter wrote, however, that Pennsylvania law does not allow for post-deadline substitution in these situations, and that the U.S. Constitution provides for specific proportional representation among states in the Electoral College. Awarding fewer electors, even in just one state, would undermine that proportionality.
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Follow Marc Levy on https://x.com/timelywriter.