Judge removes Green Party candidate from PA ballot:

Oh, dear! This doesn't bode well for Rick Santorum's re-election bid. Carl Romanelli, the Green Party candidate for Senate, was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Santorum campaign. Republicans solicited petition signatures to get hiim on the ballot. Almost all of his contributions came from Republicans who hoped he would take away votes from Democratic challenger Bob Casey. Casey is leading Santorum in current polls.

Commonwealth Court Judge James R. Kelley ruled that Romanelli, a railroad industry consultant from Wilkes-Barre, was 8,931 signatures shy of 67,070 he needed to qualify as a minor-party candidate.

Clifford Levine, an attorney for the Democrats, said the ruling "allows there to be a head-to-head matchup between Bob Casey and Rick Santorum, which is what obviously, in our view, Sen. Santorum was trying to avoid."

State Democrats had said about three-quarters of the 94,000 signatures Romanelli gathered included fake names, unregistered voters and illegible signatures.

I support third-party ballot access for legitimate candidates, but it's clear that Mr. Romanelli is a plant. He's only in the race because Santorum is desperate enough to do anything it takes to win. It looks like Mr. Family Values isn't too concerned about ethics.