House candidates Norberto Dominguez and Bethney Q. Finch off May primary ballot
Challenge to Enid Santiago's petition in 134th Democratic primary race is ongoing.
UPDATE: Bethney Q. Finch has withdrawn her nominating petition to run in the 132nd district.
An order was handed down Thursday in Commonwealth Court granting her request to set aside her petition due to invalid signatures. That means there is no Republican on the primary ballot for the seat now held by incumbent Democrat Mike Schlossberg.
With Norberto Dominguez dropping out of the Democratic race in the newly created 22nd House District over petiton challenges, that leaves Democrat Enid Santiago as the last Lehigh Valley candidate facing a challenge. She is running in the 134th House District, which is held by Democrat incumbent Peter Schweyer.
ORIGINAL STORY
Norberto Dominguez Jr. of Allentown dropped out of the Democratic primary for the state House 22nd District after his nominating petitions were challenged in Commonwealth Court.
A court hearing on the petition challenge was scheduled Thursday, but it was not held after Dominguez ended his campaign.
The court postponed two other hearings scheduled for Thursday that involved challenges to the nominating petitions of two other Lehigh Valley state House candidates: Enid Santiago, an Allentown Democrat seeking her party's nomination in the 134th District, and Bethney Q. Finch of South Whitehall Township, who was the only candidate running for the Republican nomination in the 132nd District.
State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, a Democrat who could face Finch in the November election, said Thursday’s court hearing in her case was postponed. Finch did not return a phone message seeking comment. The primary is set for May 17.
Dominguez dropping out of his race means there will be no Latino candidate running in the newly created 22nd District, which has a majority Latino population. The district comprises parts of Allentown and parts of Salisbury Township.
Dominguez, who also abandoned a House campaign in 2016, said his petition problems grew out of his inexperience, funding issues as well as the late approval of the new House map, which left some candidates unsure of what district they would end up in.
His nominating petitions were challenged by Allentown residents John Santana and Carmen Urbaez, whose court filing said there were problems with 157 of the 350 signatures on Dominguez’s petitions. Many of those signers did not live in the district or were registered. A candidate needs 300 valid signatures to be on the ballot.
“It's easier to run a campaign when you have the right connections, the right kind of money and the man-hours to easily put together a campaign with a good solid amount of paid personnel,” he said.
“And don't get me wrong, this is not a woe-is-me song. However, my night job and my teaching artist job limit the real time needed to effectively run a decent campaign. The time window was very tight as was the campaign's purse,” said Dominguez, who also works in security.
His decision leaves Democrats Joshua Siegel, an Allentown City Council member, and Saeed Georges, a mental health case worker, running for their party’s nomination in that race. Robert E. Smith, a former Allentown School Board member, is the lone candidate seeking the Republican nomination.
The new 22nd does not have an incumbent and had been viewed as a way for a Latino to gain a seat in the state House.
Nearly 70% of the district’s residents are Democrats. Its population is 53.4% Latino and 67% minority, according to Dave’s Redistricting. Georges is of Syrian descent.
Challenge to Santiago’s nominating petitions
Incumbent Democratic state Rep. Peter Schweyer and two other residents of the 134th House District asked the court to disqualify Santiago, saying her campaign had not collected the required 300 valid signatures to remain on the ballot.
Schweyer said nearly half of Santiago’s nominating petition signatures are invalid. His complaint said petitions did not contain the required 300 valid signatures to get on the ballot.
He disputed 240 of the 508 signatures because many of those 240 signers are not registered Democrats who live in the new 134th District as required by law. Two others joined Schweyer in the challenge: Leroy Bachert Jr. and Luis Lantigua.
On her campaign’s Facebook page, Santiago called Schweyer’s ballot challenge “intimidation tactics.”
Her lawyer, Matthew Mobilio of Allentown said in a statement issued Tuesday and posted on the campaign Facebook page Wednesday, “This latest attack on the Santiago campaign is an attempt to take advantage of the confusion surrounding the new electoral map and to take advantage of Rep, Schweyer’s incumbent status.” He described as “meritless” the attempt to remove Santiago from the ballot.
This is the second time Schweyer and Santiago tangled over an election challenge.
Two years ago, Santiago, co-founder of the nonprofit SELF! Women’s Reentry, made her first attempt at state office, losing the 2020 Democratic primary to Schweyer in the then-22nd District by a mere 55 votes. She then waged an unsuccessful write-in campaign in November 2020.
Santiago said the results of the primary should not have been certified because an election judge acknowledged improperly darkening voters’ marks on some ballots so the selections could be recognized by voting machine scanners.
The Lehigh County Board of Elections said Santiago never filed a complaint with the county court; by the time she questioned the election results, the deadline to ask the court to consider the case had passed, The Morning Call reported at the time.
Because of redistricting that took effect this year, Schweyer and Santiago now live in the 134th District, which comprises Emmaus and parts of Allentown and Salisbury Township.
Challenge to Finch’s nominating petitions
Finch was unopposed in the Republican primary for her party’s nomination in the 132nd District, which is made up of South Whitehall and parts of Allentown and Upper Macungie Township.
District residents Michelle Young and Shari Foose said in a court filing that 132 of the 380 signatures on Finch’s petitions should be disqualified because “either the signer or the circulator is invalid.”
Another district resident, Matthew C. Schutter also filed a challenge with the court, saying Finch’s nominating petitions also failed to meet requirements.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story wrongly identified Finch as a co-chair of Moms for Liberty - Lehigh County. In May 2023, Finch sought to correct information that had been reported in local media, telling Lehigh Valley News she had not been co-chair.