Write in Grammes for 183rd District

In 2014, Marc Grammes was the only candidate brave enough to challenge incumbent Julie Harhart for the Republican nomination for the 183rd District.

Marc gained over 1,000 votes in that race, but came up short by 350 votes.

Julie destroyed the Democratic challenger in the general election by over 5,000 votes.

Marc Grammes was obviously the front-runner when Julie announced her retirement, and in fact had more voters sign his petition than either of the two other candidates. Unfortunately, none of those 670 petition signers will have a chance to support him since he has been removed from the ballot.

By Marc's own admission, he messed up. He drove to Harrisburg and filed his petitions and financial statements with Voter Registration, but he inadvertently forgot to take those same financials across the street to the Ethics Commission. His financials were posted online as soon as he filed them with Voter Registration. Anyone could see that Grammes had nothing to hide. However, as they say, the rules are the rules, and this left an opening for one of the other candidates to challenge his candidacy. That decision was appealed, but the courts would not overturn the initial decision. I guess that making a good-faith effort is not a defensible position. This has resulted in Grammes suspending his candidacy.

Being one of those 670 signers who has been robbed of a choice does not sit well with me. I can understand challenging someone's petition when they have deceased voters on it, or if they have voters registered with the wrong party, or if they have voters who don't live in the district, but to challenge a candidate because they merely forgot to take the same paperwork to a second location is petty and opportunistic to say the least. What does that say about that candidate?

Throughout this ordeal, Grammes has taken the high ground. He does not wish to do any further damage to the party by authorizing a write-in campaign. It is because Marc has always shown such integrity that we wanted him to be our state representative. We, his supporters, are not quite as patient as Marc. We believed Marc had the potential to unseat Harhart two years ago, and we don't want to wait another two years and face the prospect of having to defeat another incumbent. If you see it the same way, please write him in - Marc Grammes.To learn more, go to our Facebook page, Write Him In - Marc Grammes.

Tom Ganser

Slatington