Tom Lingenfelter will not be running for Congress this fall.

A Commonwealth Court judge presided Thursday in Harrisburg over a challenge of the Bucks County man’s nominating petition and decided that Lingenfelter did not have enough signatures overcome the challenge of four 8^th district constituents.

After eight hours of scrutinizing signatures on the petition, Lingenfelter conceded he did not have the 3,958 valid signatures needed to support his candidacy.

Many of the signatures were discredited individually; the judge also eliminated 769 signatures in one swoop when it was revealed the petition circulators lived outside the district, a violation of election rules.

Looks like a battle between Mike Fitzpatrick and Patrick “Patlosi” Murphy!

• The Wall Street Journal has an article on The Obama-Pelosi Lame Duck Strategy.  I hope that Patrick Murphy becomes a “lame duck”, but has some class and does not participate in more complete disregard for the will of his constituents
• The Intelligencer has an article on Murphy: Failed policies cost jobs.  It’s nice to see that Congressman Murphy has finally decided to show up in public.  I’m sure the upcoming election threat from Mike Fitzpatrick has nothing to do with this sudden/abrupt change.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Shep Smith Unleashes On Judge Napolitano After He Blames Gov. For BP Spill (mediaite.com)
• Political Futures On The Line As Oil Continues To Gush (npr.org)

You can read about the press conference in this Intelligencer Article.

In summary, she received $110,079 dollars.  $11, 584 were from individual contributors and the rest was from her own funds ($18,394 in cash and “in-kind” contributions and a $80,100 personal loan)

In this prior post, I reported that Mike Fitzpatrick raised about $500,000.  The rest of the candidates numbers should be posted very shortly.

At this point, it seems to be a race between Gloria Carlineo and Mike Fitzpatrick.  You can find out more about Mike Fitzpatrick at his website at http://fitzpatrickforcongress.com/

The Federal Elections Commission should publish first quarter fundraising numbers any day now.  Check back here for a summary of the results soon.

Image via Wikipedia

According to this PoliticsPA report, Congressional candidate Mike Fitzpatrick raised roughly $500,000 in the first two months of his race.  Pretty impressive Mike!  The numbers for all canidates are due to the FEC by April 15th.  Once they’re posted, I’ll post the results here.

Our country is in real trouble and the American people know it.  I have spoken to hundreds of people since my campaign started last September.  They know that we need to:

• Get spending under control with a balanced budget
• Create jobs in our country by using our own natural resources and modifying our tax code to “level the playing field” and encouraging job creation and retention in the U.S.
• Hold our representatives accountable through: campaign reform, lobbying reform, and term-limits.

They know that we need representatives “for the people” not “for the party” and not “for themselves”.  They get it.  Our politicians don’t.

I have been motivated and uplifted with the heart-felt support and concern of everyone I have spoken to.  Unfortunately, simply wanting to carry out the will of the people alone is not enough.  You need the support of your local party and/or the ability to raise large sums of money in order to run a successful campaign.  Because I have not been able to do either, I have decided to end my race for the 8^th Congressional district.

I want to offer a sincere thank you to everyone who sacrificed their time and energy during my campaign, especially my wife and children.  You are truly remarkable!

2010 Congressional Candidate Forum
January 11, 2010 – 7 PM – 9 PM
Council Rock High School South Auditorium
2002 Rock Way
Holland, PA 18966

I look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. This event is sponsored by the Kitchen Table Patriots. You can read more about the event at http://www.thekitchentablepatriots.org/page4

Second town hall meeting here tonight at 7 PM.