Marburger off primary ballot
HARRISBURG — The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gordon Marburger's name be removed from the May 20 primary ballot for the Republican nomination in the 12th State House District.
Marburger was competing against incumbent Rep. Daryl Metcalfe in the primary.
Marburger met with his advisers Friday night and said Saturday morning that he had not yet decided whether to mount a write-in campaign.
The challenge, filed March 18 by James S. Powers of Middlesex Township and Marlene Lott of Butler, alleged that Marburger should be removed from the ballot because he failed to file a statement of financial interest with the state Ethics Commission.
The statement would include information such as outstanding loans, recent gifts and financial interest in companies. The deadline for candidates to file was March 11.
A lower court had ruled Marburger could remain on the ballot, but the state high court on Friday overturned that ruling.
Attorneys for Marburger argued that he had attached a copy of the financial statement to his nominating petition, which was filed March 7 at the Elections Bureau in Harrisburg.
According to court records, Marburger believed that was all he needed to do because he had relied on a four-step “check list” for candidates from the Election Bureau's Internet site. The list did not include a mandate to file the financial document with the Ethics Commission.
And when he submitted the paperwork to the Elections Bureau, Marburger asserts that employees there represented to him that his paperwork was properly submitted.
Marburger said he was disappointed that he was removed from the ballot.
However the Mars School Board member, local farmer and school bus driver said Friday he was not giving up and that he was considering a campaign as a write-in candidate.
“I'm on a tractor on the side of the road,” Marburger said early Friday evening during a telephone interview. “This is what I do. This is my comfort zone. It calms me down.”Marburger said he feels like he has gotten a raw deal with the decision, especially since he was notified last week by the Department of State that the ballots for the election had been certified.“We were very hopeful the whole time. Then a week ago, we got notification that the ballots were being printed and certified,” Marburger said. “So, certified must not mean crap.”Marburger said that feedback he's received from constituents leads him to believe that more than 50 percent of the voters would like to see Metcalfe lose his seat.“People believe there is a need for change. I can still do this as a write-in,” he said. “I would have to win as a write-in. We will do this as a write-in campaign as of now. I can't just walk away.”Marburger said the issue of him filing his statement of financial interest improperly was a technicality, noting that he turned it in on time to the Department of State on March 7.“It isn't that I didn't file it. It's that it needed to be filed in two different places,” he said. “It was filed on March 7 with the Department of State. It didn't go across the street to the ethics building.”Metcalfe said he wasn't surprised by the ruling.“I always believed it would be the decision,” he said. “I was aware of the precedent set by the court in the past.”However, the decision took longer than Metcalfe thought it should have.“It shouldn't have taken three weeks,” he said.Metcalfe said Marburger failed to take an important step in his campaign.“To run for office, you need to meet a minimum level of competency,” Metcalfe said.He added the decision was needed.“He was not able to comply with the law,” Metcalfe said.Metcalfe said he is not concerned with whether Marburger would continue campaigning as a write-in candidate.“I don't worry about any challengers,” Metcalfe said. “I'm going to continue to do what I always do.” The 12th District covers Adams, Clinton, Cranberry, Forward, Middlesex and Penn townships as well as Callery, Mars, Seven Fields and Valencia.Eagle staff writer Will DeShong and Cranberry Eagle Editor Jeff Forward contributed to this report.
