Former Luzerne County Councilman Rick Morelli is continuing a challenge attempting to get Walter Griffith off the May 16 primary ballot in the county controller race.
Morelli filed two court actions Tuesday — one asking county Judge William H. Amesbury to reconsider his decision to keep two signatures on Griffith’s nomination petition and the other appealing Amesbury’s ruling to Commonwealth Court.
Amesbury issued an order last week disqualifying 16 signatures on Griffith’s nomination petition for a variety of legal reasons, leaving the Kingston Township resident with 251 signatures, or one more than required.
The judge also concluded Griffith is not barred from holding the post if he is elected due to a past criminal charge.
Morelli is asking Amesbury to void two more petition signatures because these voters are not Republicans, according to his emergency motion seeking reconsideration.
Both names were contested in Morelli’s original petition challenge, but he did not raise party registration as a concern until a court hearing on the petition. Instead, his challenge had argued one signature was illegible and the other was the improper legal name.
Griffith, who represented himself, had argued these signatures can’t be disqualified based on party registration because that alleged violation was brought up after the March 15 petition challenge deadline.
Amesbury agreed with Griffith. To nullify, or “set aside,” a nomination petition, the objector must file a challenge within seven days containing the exact page and line number of each contested signature and the basis for arguing invalidity, the judge’s opinion said.
But Morelli’s new filing said Amesbury struck two signatures on Griffith’s petition because the voters were not registered Republicans, even though party registration was not raised as an issue until the court hearing. Both of these signatures were on Morelli’s original petition, alleging one was illegible and the other did not contain the proper legal name of the signer.
The court “acted in a manner inconsistent with its opinion” by striking those two but not the other two, Morelli’s filing said.
If the two additional signatures are struck, Griffith would have 249 signatures, preventing him from appearing on the ballot as a Republican.
Morelli’s new filing said new issues can be raised during court hearings under state law as long as those signatures were identified as contested on the original petition challenge filing. The rationale is that the candidate was already on notice that the validity of those signatures was questioned.
The court has 10 days from the entry of its March 30 order, or April 10, to grant reconsideration, it said.
Morelli said his appeal to Commonwealth Court challenges both Amesbury’s ruling on the signatures and Griffith’s ability to hold the seat if elected. Morelli is represented by attorneys Lawrence J. Moran Jr. and Christopher Harrison, of Joyce, Carmody & Moran P.C. in Pittston.
The state constitution says people convicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, perjury or other “infamous crime” are barred from holding public office.
Griffith pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of obstructing the administration of law for illegally recording conversations of a 2010 call with county pension fund officials, a retirement board closed-door executive session that same year, and a 2011 call with Y. Judd Shoval, a member of the nonprofit CityVest board that handled the failed Hotel Sterling renovation in Wilkes-Barre.
In his September 2013 plea agreement, Griffith agreed to immediately resign as controller, remove himself from the ballot in the controller race that year and agree not to seek elective office during his three-year probation term, which ended last September.
Morelli argued Griffith’s misdemeanor obstruction offense fell into the “infamous crime” category, but Amesbury concluded the evidence did not elevate the crime to that level.
A Sugarloaf Township resident, Morelli said Tuesday he has a valid reason to pursue Griffith’s removal from the ballot.
“I don’t want to come across as blaming Judge Amesbury. I just feel there’s an oversight,” Morelli said. “Hopefully he’ll go back to the transcripts and see what we see and be consistent.”
He said it’s “clear as black and white” that Griffith did not obtain the required number of valid signatures.
“We’ve proven that he doesn’t have 250. That’s the issue here,” Morelli said.
Griffith said only the issues raised in the original complaint should be adjudicated.
He said he asked all petition signers if they were Republicans but had no way to conduct on-the-spot election database checks to verify. He believes the law should allow candidates time to obtain new signatures to replace ones voided due to party registration.
“The law is supposed to favor the candidate and the electorate,” Griffith said.
Griffith said he’s not surprised Morelli is persisting in his challenge.
“The underlying motive is they just don’t want me to run for office and allow the voters to decide. The people really understand what’s going on,” Griffith said.
Griffith is the lone Republican to file a petition in the race. Incumbent Controller Michelle Bednar is running without competition on the Democratic side.
