College soph. drops lawsuit against John Kasich

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will be on the presidential ballot when Pennsylvanians vote on April 26.

At 3:49 p.m., College sophomore Nathaniel Rome’s attorney John Bravacos announced in an email that he had withdrawn his lawsuit against the GOP presidential candidate contesting his eligibility to be on the ballot in Pennsylvania.

“Our client has requested that the Objection to the Nomination Petition of Governor Kasich be withdrawn,” he wrote.

Minutes later, Lawrence Otter, the attorney representing Kasich, confirmed the termination of the case in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. The withdrawal comes a day after fellow GOP presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) dropped out of the race after losing the primary in his home state of Florida to 1968 Wharton alumnus Donald Trump. Rome is the chairman of Pennsylvania Students for Rubio.

Otter will still meet with Commonwealth Court Judge Bonnie Leadbetter tomorrow to discuss whether the court plans to give instructions on how to resolve similar cases in the future.

“The only thing I would like the court to do is resolve this issue so we don’t have to go through this again,” Otter said.

Rome filed a petition on Feb. 23 to remove Kasich from the statewide ballot, claiming that hundreds of invalid signatures in his nomination papers left Kasich short of the required 2,000 signatures mark.

Kasich was born in a town outside of Pittsburgh and is seen as a threat to front-runner Donald Trump in the Keystone State.

At a March 9 hearing, Otter agreed to a stipulation that left Kasich short of the 2,000 signature threshold, but argued that Rome submitted his petition 13 minutes too late. Any challenges to a candidate’s nomination papers must be filed within seven days of the Feb. 16 deadline, which occurred at 5 p.m. on that date.

Bravacos was due to submit a response brief on Wednesday afternoon when he announced the withdrawal of the lawsuit.

“We think it’s good to give the voters of PA a chance to express their views and we think Governor Kasich will do very well in Pennsylvania,” Chair of Penn for Kasich and College junior Joe Kiernan said. “Obviously, we’re pleased that they decided to drop the lawsuit.”

Rome’s petition did not escape the attention of multiple national media outlets and even Trump, who tweeted that Kasich was ineligible in Pennsylvania.

Bravacos and Rome were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. In the morning, Kasich visited Pennsylvania, speaking at a town hall at Villanova University in a suburb outside of Philadelphia.

Staff reporter Bowman Cooper and Enterprise Editor Jessica McDowell contributed reporting.

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