Candidates busy seeking signatures
FRANKLIN TWP — A petition party for Republic candidates popped up Tuesday along New Castle Road, while Democratic candidates were also busy gathering needed signatures to get their names on the April 28 primary ballot.
Drawn in by a Trump-Pence 2020 “Keep on Trumpin'” campaign bus parked in the lot of The Atrium and by social media advertising, Republican voters pulled in to sign nomination petitions for various political Republican candidates, including one for President Donald Trump's bid for reelection.
Pennsylvania's Department of State, which administers elections, allows candidates to circulate and file petitions from Jan. 28 to Feb. 18.
Among the candidates seeking signatures at the pop-up party were Republican Ryan Covert, who is challenging Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, for the party nomination to run for her position as well as Mary Kaye Soriano and Caroline Kyne, who are seeking nominations to run as delegates for the 16th Congressional District for the Republican National Convention in August.
Butler County Republican Committee member Diane Ventura spent her day circulating petitions for Trump's campaign.
“My biggest thing is getting support for the party,” Kyne said. “I want people to know young women support Trump.”
She said she recently turned 30 years old and trying to become a delegate is her first political venture. Her goals include getting women and millennials to vote.
The Butler County Democratic Committee is also spending the week getting signatures for national and local candidates as they hold public events aimed at finding Butler's blue side.
“We have multiple events going on around the county,” said Catherine Lalonde, the committee's chairwoman. “There are more Democrats (here) than you think. I think we'll start seeing more candidates on the ballot and that will bring them out.”
According to Kyne, millennials, ages 24 to 36, make up 27 percent of the voting population, while baby boomers make up 28 percent.“We got over 600 signatures for the president yesterday. My goal is to get 4,500 signatures for the president,” Ventura said.Soriano is president of Republican Women of Butler County and a member of the county and state Republican committees.“We're supporting women in politics. She's the kind of woman we need in politics,” Soriano said about Kyne's bid to be a delegate.Ventura said she started gathering signatures Monday at a petition signing event in Latrobe.The campaign bus will be at the intersection of Routes 8 and 910 in Gibsonia on Wednesday, at Down Range Supply in Meridian on Thursday, and at 1659 Route 228 in Cranberry Township on Friday for petition signing from noon to 7 p.m. each day, she said.Lalonde, on the other hand, said the Democratic committee has become much more active in the past year-and-a-half as “a reaction to Trump and the behavior of Republicans disregarding the Constitution.”Statewide, each presidential candidate needs 2,000 votes to be eligible for this year's primary election. Along with the presidential race, Lalonde said the local Democratic Party will seek registered Democrats in the county to sign petitions for local elections and for the state treasurer, attorney general and auditor general, among others.In the county, there are seven state House districts and three congressional districts, which is more than most counties, Lalonde said, due to gerrymandering.Democratic petition signing efforts started Jan. 29 with a visit to North Park Lounge, and they will continue through Sunday at an event at When Pigs Fly. The group will also be at Cummings Coffee's Butler location Wednesday from noon to 5 p.m.
