Romanelli’s Republican ‘friends’ in Pennsylvania

August 3, 2006

We learned on Tuesday that [tag]Carl Romanelli[/tag], the [tag]Green Party[/tag] candidate running in the Rick [tag]Santorum[/tag]/Bob [tag]Casey[/tag] Senate race in [tag]Pennsylvania[/tag], acknowledged that Republican contributors “probably supplied most” of his campaign’s financial support. As it turns out, that was an understatement.

Paul Kiel discovered yesterday that “every single contributor to the Pennsylvania Green Party Senate candidate is actually a conservative — except for the candidate himself.”

The Luzerne County Green Party raised $66,000 in the month of June in order to fund a voter signature drive. The Philly Inquirer reported yesterday that $40,000 came from supporters of Rick Santorum’s campaign (or their housemates). Also yesterday, we confirmed that another $15,000 came from GOP donors and conservatives. Only three contributions, totaling $11,000, remained as possible legit donations.

Today, I confirmed that those came from GOP sources.

Indeed, one of Romanelli’s more generous contributions came from a Halliburton lobbyist.

The only non-Republican donation Romanelli received was a $30 contribution that Romanelli gave himself. (The guy is only willing to chip in 30 bucks for his own campaign?)

In the meantime, the signatures Republicans helped Romanelli collect are facing a challenge from Pennsylvania Dems.

The chairman of the PA Dem party, T.J. Rooney, said today he’ll challenge the signatures that Green Party candidate Carl J. Romanelli submitted to join the Senate ballot. A number of those signatures were collected by JSM, Inc.

Rooney: “This is a questionable and controversial firm that has a history of fraudulent activity where many signatures, and candidates in some instances, have been thrown off the ballot in various states. We will ensure that this doesn’t take place in Pennsylvania and that the integrity of the electoral process is safeguarded.”

As National Journal noted, the Green Party has fewer than 20,000 members in Pennsylvania, but collected 67,000 signatures to get a spot on the ballot, while Romanelli turned in more than 90,000 signatures to qualify.

Earlier this week, Romanelli boasted about having a lot of [tag]Republican[/tag] “friends.” Apparently, they’re his only friends.

This is beyond absurd – the question is, is it illegal? Personally, I’ll just tack it on to the long list of election fraud activities the Republicans seem so happy to engage in. When are we going to wake up and realize that this stuff isnt happening in a vacuum?

  • Is this guy for real? What I’m asking about is the veracity of his purported policies. Does he really think that his running will help his causes?

    He looks more like a “useful idiot” for the Republican’ts.

    Can’t run an honest campaign. Can’t help from being dishonest.

  • I don’t think the numbers are at all convincing; I’ve signed petitions in the past to get parties on the ballot even if I don’t plan to vote for them, because I think it’s the right thing to do. You know, the Voltaire thing.

  • BuzzMon, the question is whether he’s a useful idiot or an out-and-out fraud. Is there evidence that Romanelli himself is not actually a Republican?

  • There will be a “net” result of this tactic — both in the sense of gains and lossses in votes, and the fact the internet is allowing all this to come out so early and so widely. Since Americans overwhelmingly believe in Honesty & Fair Play, Rick (the “P” is silent) Santorum will lose still more through this obvious ploy.

  • Commonality of interest.

    They need the Democratic party to collapse, as much as the Republicans want the Democratic party to collapse.

    Recall the fate of the center parties in Germany in 1931-33. The Communist position was Nach Hitler, Uns..

  • “Can’t run an honest campaign. Can’t help from being dishonest.”

    And this is why I left “the left” 30 years ago. Morons like “Legend in his own mind” Romanelli are barely distinguishable from the Morons of the Communist Party who got Hitler elected in 1933, thinking it would lead to a popular revolt.

    Moron Stupidity is the usual product of both the Far Left and the Far Right, wonderlands where ideology always trumps reality.

  • So has anyone checked to see how long Romanelli has been in the Green Party ?
    I laughed to when I was that he only chipped in $30.
    If they have 90,000 signatures and only needed 67,000 why bother, are they really going to find 23,000 illegitimate signatures. I’ll save them some time and money and say they are going to find about 90,000 republican signatures.

    If there are only 20,000 registered Greeners, who cares ? They aren’t going to decide the election anyways.

  • It does, however, show how feeble are the hopes of the Santorum camp that they would stoop to this useless and transparent fraud. They just have nothing left in the tank to offer.

  • Romanelli’s own words (via TPMuckraker):

    In an interview yesterday, the Green candidate Carl Romenelli didn’t flinch when I noted his campaign was funded entirely by GOP money. “It’s quite possible,” he said. “We received a lot of money from Republicans.” Romanelli made the ballot, you’ll remember, due to a voter signature drive funded by $66,000 from 20 conservative donors. The private company he hired was able to roust up over 90,000 signatures despite there being fewer than 20,000 registered Greens in Pennsylvania.

    But Romanelli disputed the notion that he was being used by supporters of incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) in order to draw votes away from their Democratic challenger, Bob Casey. He said it showed that there was “enough mutual respect” between himself and his donors to have “a free and open debate.”

    “I respect the fact that people on the complete opposite side of an issue could respect my point of view,” he told me.

    The money flowed, he said, in response to a funds drive he initiated. He said he made a “public plea” and asked “Democrats and Republicans alike for help.”

    “It was some of the Republican folks who came forward to provide donors. God bless them for that. Without them I could not have been able to put together the organization necessary to qualify.”

    Romanelli, who said he has “friends all over the country” and “called in every last favor” with them, wouldn’t tell me who those friends are. When I pressed him to name those he approached for the money, he refused because he didn’t want to give “the Casey people… more targets to punish.” Santorum’s campaign has admitted to encouraging supporters to donate to Romenelli’s effort.

    Though he understood why people would be wondering, “How the hell did this flaming left-winger pull this off?” — he dismissed the importance of the money’s source. “It’s not like my position on the issues have changed.”

    Romanelli was a family court officer until he retired in 2001 — so, he said, he could spend the next three years raising money for a 2004 bid to unseat Sen. Arlen Specter. That effort, he said, “wasn’t feasible,” so he tried again this time around.

    He says he entered because he’s the only anti-war, pro-choice, pro-universal-health-care candidate. “I bring a real charisma and a real depth of substance to the debate,” he told me. “I’m playing to win.” He continued:

    “I may not be successful, but at least when these dark days are reviewed by history, I’ll be proud to be among those who stood up against the injustice that is before our very eyes — as opposed to those who complicitly sat back and let it all happen.”

    What. A. Flaming. Moron.

  • KC, I did a quick Google on him & saw lots of Dem work in the past. Not to say that he would not have gone over to the Dark Side, but it looked more like Idealism vs Realpolitik to me.
    Or ego, but it’s all speculation….

  • I’m quoting this from Romanelli’s own campaign website—Romanelli2006.com….

    “The only wasted vote is one that is not cast with your values and beliefs behind it. Let’s stop wasting our votes on candidates that serve interests other than ours.”
    Carl Romanelli, March 13 2006

    How does Romanelli explain the absolute hypocrisy of his campaign with this comment? His own campaign fails to exhibit the values and beliefs of the Greens; he’s nothing but a nattering ninnyhammer shill for Santorum and the GOP. He wants people to waste their votes on his destined-to-lose campaign, knowing full well that the obvious winner will be Santorum. He also knows full well that most of his money (all but a lousy $30—talk about a WalMart mentality!) has come from Santorums people, and now we know that he knows

    Every member of the Greens needs to be challenged on this, by asking the simple question: Are you a puppet of the GOP—and why?” And, should it be found that the Greens are more into the money than they are their “values and beliefs”—then an organized effort ought to be mounted to discredit the entire apparatus of their “party….”

  • Yeah, its pretty freakin’ Green to take money from Halliburton.

    Uh huh.

    I don’t want to hear these “i’d rather be an idealist in the wilderness than act strategically and get a seat at the table” types of fringe parties lecture Democrats on “principles” again – ever. Pot, meet kettle.

  • A. Flaming. Moron., Tom ?

    — what about a.nasty.sly.lying.yellow-belly.trickster.stoog ?

    He’s bought, but is he really so stupid he doesn’t know it?

    But Steve (#14)’s said it to a T [nattering ninnyhammer shill for Santorum and the GOP. and all].

  • Hmmm. Looks like David Cobb (Green Party) and Ralph Nader (write-in) pulled down a whopping 0.16% of the vote in PA between them in the 2004 presidential election. Previous to that, the most recent PA statewide election I could find with a Green Party candidate on the ballot was the 2002 gubernatorial, wherein Michael Morrill turned in a more respectable 1.07% showing. And as always, a certain number of Green voters in both cases were likely folks who would never have cast a vote for either of the major party candidates under any circumstances.

    So with most recent polls showing Casey ahead by what 10% or more, I’d have to say bully for Mr. Romanelli and his Republican friends. I can only hope Republicans keep having ideas this good. That’s $66,000, a pretty substantial sum after all, that we know won’t be getting spent on something I’d be more concerned about. Bully!

  • Congrats CB – I just heard this article and The Carpetbagger Report mentioned on The Mike Malloy Show on Air America.

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