Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has received 41 separate challenges to nomination petitions filed by statewide and congressional candidates. Locally, objections have been filed to Taiba Sultana's nomination petition for the State Senate seat held by Lisa Boscola. She is required to have the signature support of 500 registered voters who live in her district, but according to papers filed by Allentown lawyer Ray Lahoud, she only has 484 valid signatures among the 901 people who endorsed her candidacy.
Lahoud, you may recall, paid for campaign signs calling Sultana "CRAZY, CHAOTIC CRIMINAL" when she ran unsuccessfully for State Rep. two short years ago. Sultana responded with a defamation suit, which she lost. There's no love lost between these two.
The actual petitioners are interesting, too. They include Patti Hitzel, a South Side Easton activist who can be seen at every City Council meeting and who was the victim of some ugly attacks by Sultana. They include Easton First Lady Pam Panto, whose husband Sal was rather routinely and unfairly called a bigot and sexist by Sultana.
In addition to the signature challenge, Lahoud contends that Sultana's required Statement of Financial Interests, which must be filed with the nomination petition, is also invalid.
Under the State Ethics Act, a candidate must report all direct and indirect sources of income in excess of $1,300. She must also report her "occupation or profession." She reports that she is "self-employed", but that denies the public the right to know exactly what she is doing. The public is this deprived of knowing the sources of her income.
Although no court has ruled on this question, the Pa Supreme Court threw out a nomination petition filed by a law school graduate who was not yet a practicing attorney. The court concluded that this misled the public. So if someone lists her occupation as self-employed, but fails to state how this person is self-employed, does this mislead the public, too? That's what the Commonwealth Court is being asked to decide.
Lahoud also raised some questions about the circulator affidavits
36 comments:
Lahoud does good legwork in these matters. He pays attention. Keep it up.
A video is circulating Facebook about Sultana’s endorsements. They’re all nuts.
This woman is the worst possible candidate.
Lastly, if she gets tossed for invalid signatures, her and or her husband NEED TO BE CHARGED with election fraud. This is the 3rd consecutive election where they produced fake signatures.
She is self employed as a loser nut case. (and I'm being polite).
I don't have a dog in this fight. But it seems personal. It reads like Taiba stole Raymond's Barbies or something. I don't want to believe it's a Maronite grudge from the old country. He must know that, if nominated, Democrats will elect her, just as they did her non-native-speaking husband and father of her sign-stealing progeny.
I bet you that there are many more names on there of people who have no idea they signed her petition
Yes they should BOTH be charged for election fraud and maybe the county can find a room for them with no windows
"a Maronite grudge from the old country?" Sounds like a tad of xenophobia on your part. Raymond grew up on the south side of Easton and is very loyal to people he considers his friends, especially some of the Easton police officers she attacked as well as some members of City Council. He, like Patty Hitzel, was outraged at the divisive way that Sultana comported herself, her willingness to drag Easton government into issues having nothing to do with city government and her failure to actually represent or care for her constituents.
the alleged issue with most of the signatures was the address entered on the line for one of the people who collected signatures for her if I'm reading the court filing correctly, not necessarily that the signatures themselves were fraudulent. The person who collected them may have misrepresented their address, causing the ones they personally collected them to be inadmissible. They listed Easton as their municipality instead of Wilson.
In the past, judges have allowed for circulator affidavits to be amended to fix issues like bad addresses. That’s what will happen here. And once that mistake is corrected, I anticipate Sultana getting on the ballot. We'll see how competitive the primary is, but she got over 900 signatures, hard to believe enough will be thrown out to prevent her from making it on the ballot.
Ditto!
Absolutely 💯! She will block you on all her social media and attack you with posts and videos that you can't see. She needs to be the high and mighty, but ask her a real question because you will NEVER get an answer.
It's always been a mystery to me how Taiba and her husband actually earn an income. Writing just "self-employed" on the form is about what I would have expected from her.
Over 900 you say. I can't believe there are over 900 stupid people who would sign her petition in the LV, oops they voted for trump, twice, i take it back
And yet, Democrats approved her husband overwhelmingly in the last election. You seem unfamiliar with the current Democratic Party electorate.
She is certainly a special kind of crazy and yet here we are still having to discuss her and her antics. Apparently the rules don't apply to her. She just needs to go away, far away.
Makes one wonder why this is constantly allowed with her.
Yes, the circulator argument is the weakest argument. The question whether the voter signatures are valid is the main issue, and I believe Lahoud's argument about Sultana's assertion of "self-employed" without telling us how she is self-employed is quite novel and could find merit based on the Supreme Court's ruling in the Beyer case. That's where a candidate claimed to be a lawyer although he had not yet passed the bar. The court bounced the candidate bc it misled the public. A similar argument can be made here.
Did you see the fluff piece WFMZ did on her the other day? Apparently she got stuck in Pakistan. Wish she stayed stuck lol.
Ray is Roman Catholic.
When do.ypu think NorCo Court will hear this matter? I assume Lehigh Co Courts will be hearing the other challenge to Ms. Ann's matter?
Red and black ants in the same container seem to ignore each other. Until you shake it up. Good work.
Neither county court has original jurisdiction over objections to nomination petitions filed by candidates for state office or Congress. Those matters are heard by the Commonwealth Court.
They conveniently forget that part.
You want someone in a nuclear-armed country at war with Afghanistan to be stuck in said warzone? Alright man, clearly that's normal behavior.
Taiba does not even know the job description of STATE Senator She clouds the issue with federal issues. Her husband ids on County Council and think he controls the minimum wage for the state.
She's the change we need in the state senate. This smear campaign will do nothing but embolden Taiba's Tigers. Grrrrooowl!
Taiba putting simply "self-employed" would be like an Accounting Supervisor for Air Products just putting "employed." Both seem wrong to me and hopefully Lahoud will prevail.
Right, up your dosage!!!
Forget that she has been arrested, forget that she has misrepresented herself in her campaign info, forget that she aided her children in defiling campaign signs,
Forget that she lied about an incumbent
State Representative in a debate, forget that she misrepresented the very council and region she represents, forget she allegedly forged names on her campaign sheets. If you forget all the above, she’s still just a hateful person.
She’s chump change, the kind that can’t get you anywhere.
Your an idiot
What’s not normal is why any person would travel to said country while in a war zone. Gee I wonder who paid for that trip
Never underestimate the stupidity of the Democratic Party
Remember when she made a scene at the parade also to get attention. She really does have problems.
Remember her photo in the news of her handcuffed and being put by into the squad car?
She has no chance of unseating Lisa Lisa does a great pjob her district
She said on a podcast that she passed an ordinance for rent control while on city council 😂
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