Potential Murtha foe expects to be on ballot

BY MIKE FAHER
The Tribune-Democrat

April 23, 2008 11:23 pm

— Alhough official returns are not yet available, Republican William Russell believes he has garnered enough support to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha in the fall.
Russell needed at least 1,000 write-in votes in Tuesday’s primary to become the GOP nominee for the 12th Congressional District. He contends he will easily cross that threshold based on preliminary reports from the district’s nine counties.
If Russell is correct, his name will appear opposite Murtha’s on the general-election ballot. Murtha had no Democratic opposition in the primary.
“We’ll certainly give Mr. Mur-tha a run for his money,” Russell said Wednesday.
Russell moved to Johnstown from the Washington, D.C., area to challenge Murtha, a powerful congressman who has represented the 12th district for 34 years.
But Russell failed to earn a spot on the primary ballot in February when a state judge ruled that his nominating petitions did not contain enough valid signatures.
At this point, it is clear that Republican voters cast more than 4,700 write-in votes in the 12th district race on Tuesday. In Cambria County alone, there were 1,801 Republican write-in votes for the 12th Congressional District.
However, it is not clear how many of those votes were for Russell. It is likely that some GOP votes were cast for other people, including Murtha.
And some voters might have written variations of Russell’s name that may or may not be acceptable to the various counties’ election boards.
Officials in several counties contacted Wednesday said they will not have final write-in tallies until early next week.
But with so many votes recorded, Russell’s camp believes the candidate was successful.
“We are confident that the great majority of those write-ins are ours,” said Peg Luksik, Russell’s campaign manager.
Ann Wilson, Cambria County Republican Committee executive director, expressed a similar sentiment.
“We’re optimistic,” Wilson said. “We know that Bill Russell mounted a vigorous write-in campaign.”