PACleanSweep, the non-partisan grassroots organization that raised over 100 legislative candidates after the pay raise, has renewed its call for independent and minor party candidates in response to recent inaction by the General Assembly.

“They still don’t get it,” said Russ Diamond, PACleanSweep Chair. “By focusing on a marriage amendment and utterly failing to grant any meaningful property tax relief, these people have proven they are no more concerned about what’s best for Pennsylvania than they were on July 7th.”

The group is calling for independent and minor party challengers across Pennsylvania. These challengers have until August 1 to collect the signatures required for their names to be listed on the ballot in November’s general election.

Pennsylvania currently recognizes three minor political parties – the Libertarian Party, the Green Party and the Constitution Party. Prospective candidates registered under these parties are being asked to contact their state organizations immediately to arrange to begin petitioning.

To run as an independent, prospective candidates must have been registered to vote as something other than a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green or Constitution as of April 17, 2006. Those interested in running as an independent in the fall are urged to contact PACleanSweep immediately to make petitioning arrangements.

Pennsylvania’s minor parties are all in serious danger of losing their party status due to this year’s 67,070 signature requirement for statewide candidates for ballot access. Minor party status is offered by the state if any statewide candidate fielded by a political body receives 2 percent of the overall general election vote.

“The signature requirement alone will likely keep minor party candidates off the statewide ballot and in turn make them ineligible to receive any percentage of the vote,” added Diamond. “In effect, after November there will be no minor parties recognized by the Commonwealth, further exasperating Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional election code.”

The PA Constitution dictates that “elections shall be free and equal” in Article I, Section 5. A bill currently in the House of Representatives, HB 544, would actually make the ballot access situation worse by shortening the petitioning period for minor party and independent candidates by a month, moving their deadline up to early July.

35 PACleanSweep-supported candidates were victorious in the May 16 primary election, but the group is determined to score more victories in November.

“It’s clear the message Pennsylvanians sent to elected officials on May 16th wasn’t quite loud enough. They’re back to their old election year tricks of focusing only on their chances of being re-elected. The sooner we clean house, the better,” Diamond concluded.

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PACleanSweep is a non-partisan effort dedicated to defeating incumbent elected officials in Pennsylvania and replacing them with true public servants. For more information, please visit www.PACleanSweep.com.