Libertarian cries foul after being banned from county park

The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up the case of a Libertarian congressional candidate who says he was temporarily barred from collecting nominating petition signatures in a public park.

“The way I look at it is I’m a third-party candidate and the two major parties control everything,” said Pat Sellers, who is running for the 7th Congressional District against incumbent Republican U.S Rep. Pat Meehan. “In the end, they’re going to join forces and do whatever they can to prevent anybody from interfering with the status quo.”

Sellers said he was collecting signatures to get on the November general election ballot prior to a concert at Rose Tree Park July 15 when Delaware County Director of Parks and Recreation Marc Manfre asked him and others there to stop.

When told the petitioners were not soliciting, Manfre called county Solicitor Mike Maddren, according to Sellers and volunteer Dale Kerns. Maddren allegedly informed Manfre that the candidate and his supporters are legally allowed to collect signatures on public grounds, but by that point the concert was about to begin.

“Keep in mind, while we’re being harangued by the police, it’s difficult to collect signatures,” said Sellers.

The issue appeared settled until two days later, when Kerns said a Delaware County Park Police lieutenant allegedly acting under the direction of county council Chairman Mario Civera and Park Police Chief Samuel S. Ziviello again ordered Sellers and Kerns to cease signature collections.

Maddren did not return calls for comment Monday, but Civera said he was contacted about 6:30 p.m. and told people were circulating petitions in the park.

“My response to that was that if they’re in violation of what the rules and regulations of the Park Board and county council’s ordinance, then they need to cease and desist,” he said. “They (Park Police) said, ‘What do you want us to do?’ and I said ‘I’m just answering you the way the ordinance is written.’”

Kerns said he was presented with a copy of a memorandum from Ziviello that indicated there should be “no distribution of/or erecting of political literature and signs on county park properties” unless previously authorized by the county.

“This is not the first rule like this we have seen,” said Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director for the Philadelphia ACLU. “We’ve seen several places that have tried to ban political activities in their parks, and I’m sure that what they want to do is have their parks as recreational venues, but they really just don’t understand the First Amendment.”

In a letter to Manfre, Maddren and Ziviello Friday, Roper cited several federal court decisions that have held the government’s ability to restrict expressive conduct in public places is extremely limited, and can only be constitutionally valid if it serves a compelling public interest and is narrowly drawn to achieve that end.

Petition circulators would obviously not be allowed to travel through

the crowd during the concert, said Roper, but before and after the performance would be fair game, as would the rest of the park.

“It’s one of the places that we have always been able to reach out to our fellow citizens, particularly about political issues,” she said. “I kind of understand where the governments are coming from, but they’ve got it backward. The First Amendment protects political speech first, before, say, recreation. That’s sort of flipping the hierarchy of the type of expression that we value in this country.”

Kerns said he and Sellers did pack up and leave the park when asked to July 17, but were soon pulled over and told they would be cited for disorderly conduct. Kerns videoed much of that traffic stop on his phone and posted it to Facebook.

Kerns later met with Ziviello, who he praised for working as something of a mediator between the Libertarians and the county. Kerns said Ziviello told him his officers would no longer interfere with collections and Maddren told him no citations would be forthcoming.

Kerns and Sellers also said Maddren told them circulators could return

to the park, but placed restrictions on their movements and ability to display political literature, including T-shirts. Roper indicated in her letter that people collecting signatures in the park would not abide by the restrictions and that the ACLU would file suit if they are enforced.

“That debate is for another day,” said Civera. “The interpretation that the solicitor gave Mr. Kerns is the same interpretation that he gave me. They were allowed to circulate the petitions in the park as long as they were 40 feet from the stage area where they wouldn’t interfere (with the audience).

“If the ordinance has to be amended, then that’s a debate that county council has to deal with, but right now I’m fine with it. That’s what the solicitor interpreted and I’m good with it.”

Sellers said he was back at the park Sunday and had no issues. Kerns also said he has not had any further problems with park police or the county, but it might all be moot for Sellers’ candidacy at this point.

Third-party candidates in Pennsylvania are required to gather additional signatures to get on a general election ballot. Sellers needs 3,000

signatures to do so this year, while Meehan had to secure only 1,000 signatures for the primary ballot.

Each concert at Rose Tree draws about 300 attendees and petitioners missed out on three or four of those concerts, Kerns said. By his estimation, Sellers will not be able to collect enough signatures by an Aug. 1 deadline to be on the ballot come November.

Even beyond that, Kerns said there could be some collateral damage to Sellers’ overall reputation for being pulled over in front of the very people he had only minutes before introduced himself to as a candidate for Congress.

“That’s a very distinct thing to remember,” said Kerns. “When people see anyone being pulled over, they immediately think they did something wrong … That looks very bad on a candidate. And I don’t think they can ever erase that from the minds of the people that were there that night.”

Sellers, a former Republican, said this was a spontaneous and unplanned candidacy that he was not able to devote himself to initially due to his work schedule. If he misses the mark by 1,000 signatures, he said he would not attribute it to missing those days at the park. If it is within 100 signatures, however, he said the inability to petition concert-goers very likely will have kept him off the ballot.

“But I am committed to the Libertarian cause now,” he said. “They’re a great bunch of people, and next time it will be planned and I will get on the ballot.”