Published: April 29, 2008 11:25 pm      

Murtha rival wins GOP nod as write-in

EBENSBURG — U.S. Rep. John Murtha will have a Republican challenger on the November ballot after all.

William Russell of Johnstown received enough votes in Cambria County alone to win the GOP nomination for the 12th Congressional District, an official tally shows.

There’s no indication that Murtha, a Johnstown Democrat, got enough GOP write-ins in the sprawling district to top what Russell received here.

In Cambria’s official tabulation, Russell’s write-ins totaled 1,489 under various spellings of his name, including 1,256 with the correct spelling.

Cambria wrapped up its tabulation about 1:30 a.m. Saturday after a 16-hour day that started Friday morning.

Murtha received only 93 write-ins under various spellings of his name on Cambria’s GOP ballot.

His campaign committee had notified election offices in his district of a write-in campaign for the Republican nomination.

A person staging a write-in campaign for Congress needs at least 1,000 votes to win a party’s nomination, said Fred Smith, Cambria election supervisor.

Results in the other counties in the district still are being tabulated, including Somerset County, where the 12th district covers the northern sector.

All of Greene County and parts of eight other counties, including Cambria and Somerset, are in the sprawling district.

Tina Pritts, Somerset County election director, said Somerset’s official tabulation should be completed by Thursday.

Smith said there were no changes in the outcome of any races, although the official totals changed with absentee ballot tallies now included.

However, state Rep. Gary Haluska, D-Patton, has won not only his party’s nomination but also the GOP nomination.

He received 319 votes, including 304 with the correct spelling of his name.

An attempt by Republican Stephen Shuagis of Munster Township to win the nomination by write-ins failed. He received 263 votes. He had tried to get onto the ballot, but the Haluska campaign was successful in challenging his nomination petitions prior to the election.

Russell, who moved to Johnstown from Washington, D.C., to run against Murtha, had attempted to get onto the primary ballot, but a state judge ruled that his nomination petitions did not contain enough valid signatures.

On Tuesday, Russell said he believes he’ll end up with 3,500 to 5,000 write-ins from all of the counties.

Under state law, counties are to have their official tallies in to the state by May 12 – 20 days after the primary.

“I want to thank all the people who worked to make this happen and to those who voted for me,” he said.

To get the 1,489 votes in Cambria alone was a good omen for his campaign in the fall, Russell said.

“People tell me that it was quite significant to get that many write-ins,” he said.

The Murtha campaign did not return an e-mail request for comment.