Third candidates could tilt number of races

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2006 | by Kathy Kiely

WASHINGTON -- Carl Romanelli has never run for office and belongs to a political organization that has never elected anyone to Congress. Even so, the Green Party candidate's U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania has Democratic leaders manning battle stations. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., head of his party's Senate campaign committee, charged at a news conference last week that there is "huge evidence of fraud" in the petitions Romanelli submitted to qualify for the Nov.

7 ballot, which the Green Party candidate disputes. Schumer said Democrats are "working hard" to keep Romanelli off the ballot. Party leaders are worried that Romanelli, a retired family court aide, could siphon enough votes from their candidate, Bob Casey, to ensure the re-election of Republican Rick...