Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Joe Sestak challenged a Green Party candidate who has attempted to join the race with Republican Pat Toomey. Challenges also were filed against minor candidates in two area races for the House.
Actions of this type have become part of political tool kits around the country as the major parties vie for every election edge.
Rogers, of York, said Republicans must be concerned that she would take some conservative votes away from their gubernatorial nominee, Tom Corbett, the state attorney general.
"It's incredibly cowardly of major-party politicians to hide behind other party people in their fear of showing their faces when they challenge minor parties," she said.
The Corbett campaign said, however, that it had nothing to do with the challenge, which questions whether Rogers had the 19,082 signatures of registered voters necessary for her to gain a spot on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Sestak's challenge of Green candidate Mel Packer marked the second time in this election cycle that the Delaware County Democrat has resorted to the courts to remove a potentially nettlesome opponent.
Packer, a physician's assistant from Pittsburgh, could draw some left-leaning voters from Sestak, which could be significant in a close race with Toomey.
"We believe there are many apparent examples of election improprieties in Mel Packer's submission," J. Manly Parks, a Duane Morris L.L.P. lawyer who filed the challenge, said in a statement.
In the Democratic primary against Sen. Arlen Specter, Sestak successfully sued to knock independent candidate Joe Vodvarka off the ballot.
Sestak is the rare candidate who signed his own name to his challenges. Candidates typically don't like to get their hands dirty, instead lining up voters to formally file ballot-access lawsuits or relying on party committees.
