Rick Santorum hearts the Green Party!

The AP is reporting that:

Green Party candidates for governor and U.S. Senate on Tuesday turned in what they said are more than enough signatures to ensure that their names will appear on the Nov. 7 general-election ballot.

U.S. Senate candidate Carl Romanelli and gubernatorial hopeful Marakay Rogers, who circulated joint petitions, said they turned in at least 90,000 signatures to meet the petition deadline for minor-party and independent candidates.

But the interesting part happens a few paragraphs down.

Romanelli, a former Luzerne County family-court officer who is making his first bid for statewide elective office, is considered to be a potential spoiler for Casey's campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. Romanelli has acknowledged that most of the $100,000 that his campaign spent gathering signatures probably came from GOP donors.

Turns out that's exactly the case. Here's the AP this morning:

Thanks to the generosity of GOP donors, a Green Party candidate is expected to make it onto the ballot in Pennsylvania's Senate race and siphon votes from Democratic front-runner Bob Casey in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.

And a few paragraphs down:

Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli, making his first bid for statewide elective office, acknowledged Monday that Republican contributors probably supplied most of the $100,000 that he said he spent gathering signatures to qualify for the Nov. 7 ballot.

The Philly Inquirer had a little more info:

When Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) encouraged everyone in state politics to help the Green Party earn a spot on the November ballot, at least one group answered the call: Santorum donors.

Fourteen Santorum supporters gave $40,000 to fund a petition drive that has allowed Carl Romanelli to collect about 100,000 voter signatures to qualify for the Senate race. That's 33,000 more signatures than required, and double what independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader gathered here in 2004.

Just fourteen Santorum supporters made it possible for the Green candidates to get enough signatures?

There may be a problem with Rick's purchase however:

But Romanelli and the Green Party of Luzerne County, which collected the money, might have violated federal election law in the process.

In his latest campaign-finance reports, Romanelli listed $66,000 as an in-kind contribution from the Green Party. Such donations cannot exceed $5,000, said Ian Stirton, a Federal Election Commission spokesman, who spoke generally about election law and not about this specific case.

Oops. Romanelli said that if they did break the law, it was unintentional. I'll leave it to the lawyers to hash it all out.

Romanelli does say one interesting thing:

Both Republicans and Democrats have this notion that, if Greens are in the race, Democrats lose votes...

Gee, what would give them that idea? And considering how cash Santorum supporters have paid for the privilege of having a Green candidate in the race, they must believe they're paying for something.

TPMMucker has some more details.

The $66,000 came from twenty donors, in contributions ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. None of the donors have a history of giving to the Green Party.

The Inquirer reported that $40,000 came from donors who either had given to Santorum's campaign or lived at the same address as a Santorum supporter. But even more than that came from Republicans. That raises the question whether any of the $66,000 - which compromises the total sum collected by both the local Green Party and Romanelli (with the exception of his $30 contribution) this election cycle - came from actual supporters of the Green Party.

Ha! Anyone have any idea? There's more:

But there's evidence that even those who didn't also give to Santorum's campaign are Republicans.

I called up one couple, Harry and Carol Wolfington, who had given $5,000 each to the Green Party. Mrs. Wolfington hadn't heard of the Green Party and told me they were conservatives. She referred me to her husband, who she said had made the contributions, but he refused to talk to me.

Together with another $5,000 contribution, which came from a donor who'd given to Republicans in the past according to FEC reports, the Wolfington's $10,000 means that fully $55,000 of the Green Party's $66,000 came from Republicans. I was unable to contact the remaining three donors, none of whom have given to the Green Party in the past.

So if the 40 grand for the petitions came from fourteen donors and 60 grand came from twenty donors, doesn't that mean that the 100 grand came from no more than 34 donors?

So remember, the next time you see Carl Romanelli campaigning, remember he's been bought and paid for by Santorum's republicans.