HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania's Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to have Bill DeWeese - the disgraced former House speaker who is in prison for corruption - removed from the 2012 ballot so the party can replace him in time for the Nov. 6 election.
The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, names DeWeese and Secretary of State Carol Aichele as defendants.
DeWeese is serving a 21/2- to five-year prison term after being convicted of corruption, which bars him from serving in the legislature. Yet he remains on the ballot as the Democratic nominee in his former southwestern Pennsylvania district.
