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GOP Aids Santorum's Green Rival in Pa.
Thanks to the generosity of GOP donors, a Green Party candidate is expected to make it onto the ballot in Pennsylvania's Senate race and siphon votes from Democratic front-runner Bob Casey in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.
While Santorum said Monday that he would welcome another candidate on the ballot, Casey's campaign accused Republicans of "trying to steal the election."
Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli, making his first bid for statewide elective office, acknowledged Monday that Republican contributors probably supplied most of the $100,000 that he said he spent gathering signatures to qualify for the Nov. 7 ballot.
Romanelli said he expects to turn in far more than the required 67,070 signatures by Tuesday's deadline.
"I have friends in all political parties. It's just that my Republican friends are more confident about standing with me than my Democratic friends. And as a group, my Republican friends are a little better off," he said in a telephone interview.
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Romanelli, of Wilkes-Barre, supports abortion rights, while both Santorum and Casey oppose them. Political observers say Romanelli's candidacy would likely draw votes from Casey, the state treasurer, who has held a double-digit lead over Santorum for months.
Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show the Luzerne County Green Party received $66,000 in June from 20 contributors who gave between $1,000 and $5,000 apiece.
The Luzerne County Green Party in turn reported paying $66,000 in June to a Florida company called JSM Inc. for work that Romanelli described as an integral part of his signature-gathering campaign.
An analysis showed that at least $29,000 came from donors who also have given to Santorum's campaign, and nearly all the donors had given to Republican candidates in recent elections.
Santorum said he hopes Romanelli makes it onto the ballot.
"This is politics," the second-term senator told reporters Monday while campaigning in suburban Pittsburgh. "It's no surprise when you're an incumbent, it helps to have more people on the ballot." A Casey campaign spokesman accused Santorum of "earmarking" GOP contributions for an ostensible opponent.
"He's been the biggest supporter of the Green Party candidacy," said the spokesman, Larry Smar.
Virginia Davis, Santorum's campaign spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about whether he solicited the contributions.
© 2006 Associated Press.
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