Jeannette, Monessen mayoral candidates removed from primary ballots

Three mayoral candidates in Jeannette and one in Monessen were removed Monday from May’s primary ballots.

Following a series of court hearings, Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr. ruled Democrat Robin Mozley and Republicans Ron Kastner and Ed Day failed to submit the proper paperwork needed to run for office in Jeannette. Nomination documents submitted by Monessen mayoral hopeful Mary Jo Smith also were deficient, the judge ruled.

Those rulings mean Jeannette’s two-term incumbent Republican Mayor Curtis Antoniak will be unopposed this spring and in November will likely face Democrat Michelle Langdon, who, as a result of Monday’s court action, also faces no primary challenger.

First-term Democrat Ron Mozer will be unopposed in his bid for another term as Monessen’s mayor.

Antoniak sought the removal of his challengers, saying Day and Kastner failed to file nomination petitions with the required 100 signatures of qualified Republican voters and statements of financial interests with the city’s clerk.

“I’m honest, and what I wanted to do is follow Pennsylvania state law in running for office. I did it right, and they did it wrong. You don’t want someone in office who doesn’t follow state laws,” Antoniak said.

Two of the three Jeannette mayoral candidates bounced from the ballot submitted statements of financial interest with the county election bureau earlier in March, but none filed required duplicates with the city’s clerk office, a technicality the judge said is a fatal error under existing state law.

Day, as he left the courtroom, vowed to appeal.

“This is terrible,” Day said.

Day met the signature threshold but told the judge the provision that required the filing of his financial disclosure should be waived because Jeannette relocated its clerk’s office to a new location in city hall and placed it under the auspices of the city manager, a job created several years earlier.

Kastner testified he, too, was confused about the requirement to file two financial documents.

Smith, a former one-term mayor who was the first woman elected to head Monessen’s government, was removed from the ballot after the judge ruled she was three signatures short of the required number needed to appear on the ballot. She did not appear in court for Monday’s hearing.

Smail also issued an order to remove Franklin Regional School Board candidate Republican Susan Ilgenfritz from the primary ballot for filing her financial disclosure form with the district six days late. Five candidates seeking four board seats remain on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots.