CHESTER COUNTY, PA – John Murphy, the Independent congressional candidate in the 16th District, announced to his supporters yesterday that the campaign had collected over 2,400 signatures at voting precincts throughout the 16th District on April 22.

John Murphy said "even though we have collected close to a hundred more signatures than required, the Democrat Party vowed in 2004 that they would destroy any candidate that opposed the two-party system".  Murphy reminded his volunteers that the Democrat Party pulled Ralph Nader off the ballot in 2004 even though he had almost twice the signatures required.  They struck off names because people printed in the first column instead of signing in the first column; they struck off the names of the elderly; they struck off names because of bad handwriting; they even struck off over 6,000 names because people had moved from the time they signed the petition in April and when the petitions were challenged in August.

Murphy continued by saying "as if that weren't bad enough, judges then made Nader pay $90,000 in legal fees to the Democrat Party's law firm law firm Reed-Smith but nobody ever mentioned in the press that the partners at Reed-Smith had contributed $37,000 to the election campaigns of the very judges who ruled against Nader and in favor of Reed-Smith".

Murphy reminded his volunteers that the Democrat Party did even worse in 2004 when it removed the Green Party senatorial candidate Carl Romanelli who collected over 100,000 signatures.  Murphy said "this is a man who lives in an apartment in Wilkes-Barre; he will spend the rest of his life paying the $90,000 the Democrat Party spent in legal fees to remove him".  Murphy continued: "there are two ways to destroy democracy; one way is by preventing people from voting, the other is by preventing worthy candidates from ever appearing on the ballot.  In 2004 and again in 2006 the Democrat Party has chosen the latter method".  Murphy explained that "if you want to run for election in Pennsylvania and you are an independent or a member of one of the newer parties, you have to be willing to bet your  house".

Murphy further explained to his volunteers that it would be necessary for them to continue collecting signatures for the next several months even though they had passed the number of signatures required by law.  He explained that the Democrat Party wants to make sure that his time and resources and that of his volunteers would be consumed by the minutia embedded in these egregious ballot access laws and thereby prevent him from spending time raising money and campaigning against the two corporate owned candidates.

"The Corporate-Free Candidate"