Posted on 02/18/2004 6:49:52 AM PST by 2banana
Lower Makefield resident to challenge Greenwood
By BRIAN CALLAWAY
Bucks County Courier Times
Jim Greenwood has more than just Democrats to worry about as he tries to keep his seat in Congress this year - another Republican is also now in the race.
Joseph V. Montone of Lower Makefield filed papers to challenge the six-term incumbent yesterday, the deadline for getting on the ballot for the April 27 primary election.
On the Democratic side, Yardley lawyer Virginia Waters Schrader and Doylestown's Tom Lingenfelter, a former Republican challenger to Greenwood, also filed to run yesterday after previously announcing their candidacies for the 8th District. The seat represents Bucks County as well as slivers of Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
Montone, 43, did not return calls for comment yesterday. But Jay Russell, a spokesman for the campaign, said Montone is running because Greenwood is too liberal to be the Republican candidate.
Russell, who himself ran against Greenwood as a Libertarian in 1994, said Montone would be more fiscally conservative than Greenwood and was more in line with most Republicans on social issues, like abortion.
"His number one concern is the life issue," Russell said of Montone. Greenwood is an abortion rights supporter.
"We just believe it's an opportunity to allow people out there to vote their conscience," Russell said. Greenwood, who has faced primary opponents in five straight elections, said he is ready for this one.
"What happens every election is someone like this spends the primary howling that I'm not conservative enough," he said, "and as soon as the primary is over the Democratic candidate starts howling that I'm too conservative."
According to records from the board of election, Montone registered to vote as a Republican in 1994, but switched briefly to the Democratic Party in 2002 before returning to the GOP fold.
Russell said Montone changed his registration in order to vote for Bob Casey - an abortion-rights opponent - in that year's Democratic gubernatorial primary against now-Gov. Ed Rendell.
Harry Fawkes, chairman of the Bucks County Republican Committee, said he'd heard someone was planning a primary challenge for Greenwood, "probably to stir up trouble."
He said he'd never met Montone before, and that the party had no intention of supporting anyone but Greenwood.
"We'll run our candidate," he said.
Schrader, making her first run at Congress after an unsuccessful bid for the state Legislature, said she was happy Democrats weren't the only ones with a primary race this year.
"That means that everyone is in the same boat," she said. "No one's getting a pass."
Lingenfelter was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Bucks County primary candidates
Following is a list of candidates for legislative office in the Democratic and Republican primaries scheduled for April 27. The deadline for candidates to file at the Pennsylvania Department of State in Harrisburg was yesterday.
Congress
Senate
Joseph M. Hoeffel, D
Arlen Specter, R, incumbent
Pat Toomey, R
House of Representatives, 8th District
Jim Greenwood, R, incumbent
Joseph V. Montone, R
Virginia Waters Schrader, D
Tom Lingenfelter, D
State Senate
No races
State House of Representatives
18th
Gene DiGirolamo, R, incumbent,
Victor Corsino, D
29th
Bernard O'Neill, R, incumbent
Dexter Watson, R
Brad Kirsch, D
31st
Dave Steil, R, incumbent
140th
Tom Corrigan, D, incumbent
141st
Tony Melio, D, incumbent
George Dranginis, R
142nd
Matt Wright, R, incumbent
John Krimmel Sr., D
143rd
Charles McIlhinney, R, incumbent
Neil Samuels, D
Maureen Shuster, D
144th
Katherine Watson, R, incumbent
145th
Paul Clymer, R, incumbent
John Norvaisas, D
178th
Scott Petri, R, incumbent
Jay Russell, R
Michael Lavanga, D
152nd (Montgomery County, formerly Bucks)
John Weinrich, R
Emily Graupner, R
Susan Cornell, R
Ross Schriftman, D
Brian Callaway can be reached at bcallaway@phillyBurbs.com.
I hadn't heard that, though I wondered in Lingenfelter might be able to pull out a win anyway, at least in the Democrat primary.
The RINO-hunt is a mixed bag this year:
Specter vs. Toomey
Greenwood vs. Montone & maybe Lingenfelter
Roscoe Bartlett vs. state rep Steve Stoll
Wayne Gilchrest vs. state senator Richard Colburn
Sherry Boehlert vs. possible Walrath rematch
Amo Houghton vs. ? if he runs again
BTW, it's Rolle, not Stoll, who's some other guy from Missouri, and he's a prosecutor, not a state rep. That's what I get for trying to do everything from memory! :)
My impression from the article was that this is more of a protest candidacy. I wouldn't look for him to raise too much money (without which it's hard to get to 50%), but rather make the grass roots rounds and uphold the RTL principle. It's only a rare circumstance when an incumbent is defeated in a primary.
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