Born-Again Ballen

Most people believed Sheila Ballen’s quixotic quest to become state representative in the 175th District had come to an end last week when a judge threw out her nominating petition to enter the Democratic primary. It turned out everybody was wrong, though only after the unthinkable occurred.

The day after the March 10 decision, a disappointed Ballen -- having depleted all her funds for fighting the challenge -- said she had a good cry, thanked her followers, shut off the office phone and visited her parents in Abington for a homemade chicken dinner and some TLC. But without warning two days later, the judge did what no one can remember any judge ever doing. Between the time of oral arguments and when he issued a written opinion, Commonwealth Court Judge Charles Mirarchi Jr. changed his mind. In doing so, he allowed 94 signatures he'd previously rejected to remain on the petition. That cleared the way for Ballen's name to appear on the ballot for the April 27 primary in the 175th, which runs along the Delaware River from South Philly to the Northeast.

Such a dramatic reversal might prompt even the least cynical political observer to wonder who -- or what -- got to the judge, but it appears this is nothing more than a genuine change of heart on Mirarchi's part.

Had the judge originally ruled in Ballen's favor and then tossed out the upstart, tongues would certainly be wagging with even greater vigor.

Ballen, 38, is slated to run against Marie Lederer, an incumbent who is said to enjoy a degree of protection from power broker state Sen. Vince Fumo. But neither Lederer nor Fumo was a party to the actual court challenge. (Ballen's petition was formally challenged by Margaret Rzepski, one of the party faithful from the 31st Ward.) Still, Lederer's chief of staff, Mike O'Brien, was present when the judge delivered his first decision.

Many nominations have been lost through petition challenges, so Ballen came prepared to play hardball. She needed 300 names; she brought 700. Rzepski's lawyer started the challenges in the morning, and by late afternoon 700 names had been whittled to 215.

By law, signatures and addresses must match exactly. A signature with an initial instead of a full name, a missing or added middle name, or a street address lacking a north or south will be disqualified. But what had brought Ballen down were not signatures but dates. The signatures in question had dates with the day and month -- but lacked the year. At first the judge, following the law exactly, threw them out. But, given that the year was printed on each page of the official form, Ballen's campaign was reborn.

No word yet on any appeals, but Ballen says her mother has another emergency chicken in the fridge just in case.

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