Judge pulls 3 candidates from ballots

Primary hopefuls failed to file financial interest statements before deadline

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Blair County judge has removed three candidates -- two for Hollidaysburg Area School Board and one for Antis Township supervisor -- from the May primary after challenges showed that they had failed to file financial interest statements with the school district and township.

Judge Ilissa Zimmerman, who convened a hearing Thursday to address the challenges, ordered the removal of school board candidates Matt Mielnik and Peg Murphy and supervisor candidate Benjamin Hornberger.

"I did not understand that I needed to do that," Murphy admitted in court to Zimmerman.

Hornberger said he filed a financial statement on Wednesday after learning of the requirement. The deadline was March 7.

"I understand that I did make a mistake," Hornberger said.

Court Administrator Nicole Smith advised the judge that Mielnik, who wasn't in court, had asked for his matter to be rescheduled because he was traveling out of the area.

Zimmerman, after hearing that the county elections office identified March 16 as the specific date for the court to address petition challenges, declined the delay. Subsequently, after recognizing that Mielnik submitted a financial statement with the school district on March 10, deemed that submission to be too late and ordered his name to be removed from the ballot.

Hollidaysburg residents Richard Latker and Jennifer Costanza, a member of the Hollidaysburg Area School Board who is not a candidate in the May primary, filed the challenges against Mielnik and Murphy.

In their petition raising the challenge, Costanza reported that she asked the district for copies of the candidates' financial interest statements. In response, she received statements filed by candidates Missy Sullivan, Kenneth B. Snyder, Michele Luther, Doug Stephens, John Wells, Heather J. DeStefano, Jesse Blank, Ying Li and Cory Hartman, filed on or before March 7, and by Mielnik, filed March 10.

"There was no statement from candidate Murphy," Latker advised Zimmerman. "It simply wasn't done."

The removal of Mielnik and Murphy leaves nine candidates vying for five party nominations in the primary. While Snyder and Stephens will be on the Republican ballot only, the other seven candidates cross-filed and will be on both the Republican and Democratic ballots.

Antis Township Supervisor Robert E. Smith, who is a candidate in the spring primary to retain his seat, raised his challenge after learning from Antis Township office personnel that Hornberger and candidate Christopher A. Forshey hadn't filed financial interest statements. Because Forshey withdrew from the race before Thursday's hearing, Zimmerman dismissed the challenge to his candidacy as moot.

Smith, in challenging Hornberger's candidacy, referred to instructions in a 10-page informational packet the county provides to candidates seeking office.

The document states that the statement of financial interest has to be filed in two locations: with the secretary of the governing authority of the political subdivision, such as a borough, township, county or school district, and with the nomination petition submitted to the county.

Hornberger told Zimmerman that he wasn't aware of this requirement when he previously ran for supervisor and won the May 2021 primary and went on to compete in the November election.

Hornberger also asked Zimmerman to consider that Smith's petitions contain invalid signatures, for lack of initials and middle names, to match the names on voter registration lists.

After Hornberger acknowledged that he didn't file a challenge with the court to Smith's petitions, Zimmerman declined to address that claim.

The removal of Hornberger from the ballot leaves Smith and fellow candidate George Bell as the only two Republicans seeking two open six-year seats on the supervisors board. Another supervisor candidate, Susan Kensinger, is seeking a two-year seat and she, like Smith and Bell, filed her financial interest statements with the township in February.

In removing the three candidates from the ballot, Zimmerman referenced the Pennsylvania State Ethics Law and earlier court decisions that have recognized the failure of candidates to file financial interest statements as "a fatal defect."

In 2014, the state Supreme Court removed gubernatorial candidate Bob Guzzardi from the ballot after it was determined that Guzzardi missed the deadline for filing a statement of financial interests with the state Ethics Commission. That ruling allowed Tom Corbett to be the only Republican on the ballot in a primary that he was favored to win.

A year later in Blair County, Judge Wade A. Kagarise removed Hollidaysburg Area School Board members Troy Keefer, Aaron Ritchey and Brady Leahey from the ballot because they were a day late in submitting financial interest statements.

In subsequent years, additional challenges have been raised in Blair County to challenge the validity of candidates and their petitions.

Solicitor Nathan Karn, who advises the county's board of elections and its elections office, said after Thursday's hearing that he doesn't know what the county can do to make candidates aware of the rules associated with running for office.

He referenced Page 7 of the county's nomination petition instructions that address financial interest statements. That page, entitled "STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL INTEREST" indicates that the completed statement must be filed in "TWO LOCATIONS," with the governing authority and with the petition being filed.

"It's in caps and it's bolded," Karn said. "What else could we do?"

The instructions also indicate that failing to comply will be a fatal defect for appearing on the ballot, based on Pennsylvania State Ethics Act, with questions directed to the State Ethics Commission.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.