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Candidate can stay on ballot despite conviction
By jeanne starmack
new castle, pa.
A city council candidate can stay on the ballot even though he is a convicted felon, a judge has decided.
Gary Mitchell, who is one of three Democrats running for three open seats in the November election, has a 2002 felony drug conviction.
He sold cocaine to undercover informants, according to Vindicator files.
John Altman, the lone Republican running for council, filed a petition to have the court remove Mitchell from the ballot on the grounds that state law prohibits convicted felons from holding office. Mitchell has said he doesn’t believe his crime was infamous enough under state law to prohibit him from sitting on council.
Judge John Hodge of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court had a hearing on Altman’s petition July 26. The hearing dealt with whether Altman had legal standing to file the petition with the court.
Mitchell’s attorney and Thomas Leslie, attorney for the county and the board of elections, said Altman would only have standing after Mitchell was elected and only if the county district attorney and the state attorney general both declined to pursue removing Mitchell from office.
Citing case law, Judge Hodge wrote in his opinion that a court can consider whether a candidate is qualified to hold office.
But, he said, a private citizen is restricted from objecting to a candidate until the district attorney and attorney general refuse to object.
Altman told The Vindicator the district attorney said in a phone conversation he would not address the issue unless Mitchell is elected. He said he got a letter from the attorney general referring him to the district attorney.
But Altman did not have written refusals from either to enter into the court records.
“If both the district attorney and the attorney general had acted or refused to take any action, the court could properly confer standing upon Mr. Altman,” Judge Hodge wrote. “That is not the case, however.”
He dismissed the petition without prejudice, meaning Altman could file another complaint.
Altman said he gave a letter to Lamancusa on Friday asking him to take action, but he doubts he will have time to refile and get the court to hear a complaint before November.
“I have to get [Lamancusa] to refuse, and the attorney general to refuse,” he said.