Jim Schneller is the type of guy that liberals love to hate.

Pro-life conservative. Strict constitutional constructionist. Rails against the "bloated" federal government. Doubts whether President Obama was born in the United States.

But in the Philadelphia suburbs, Schneller might be the Democrats' best friend. At least for the next three months.

Yesterday, Schneller filed paperwork in Harrisburg to appear as the "American Congress Party" candidate on the ballot in Delaware County's 7th Congressional District. He says that he obtained 7,900 signatures, well more than the 4,200 he needed.

Schneller, 54, of Wayne, would create a three-way race for outgoing Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak's seat. Given his conservative rhetoric, Schneller's candidacy could benefit Democratic state Rep. Bryan Lentz by peeling votes away from the Republican congressional candidate, former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan.

Earlier this year, Meehan's supporters were worried that former Fox 29 anchor Dawn Stensland would hurt Meehan's campaign by entering the race. She decided against it. But now Republicans have to deal with Schneller, who doesn't have Stensland's name recognition or looks, but could present the same problem if he gets support from tea-party voters and others who would normally be expected to vote for Meehan.

Christopher Borick, a political-science professor at Muhlenberg College, said that it's too early to tell if Schneller will affect the race.

"It's by no means a given," Borick said. "There are many examples of third-party candidates that got ballot access [but] then didn't produce anything in terms of meaningful vote totals."

Schneller has only $7,000 cash on hand, mostly money that he contributed to his campaign. Reducing the size of government appears to be his central message. On his Web site, Schneller supports a "phase out" of the Federal Reserve, Department of Energy and other "unconstitutional" agencies. He describes himself as "fully trained in the law," although he doesn't have a college or law degree.

"Where is Congress?" Schneller asks visitors to his site. "Our nation suffers from every sort of erosion and evil intrusion, because we are a strong nation - and founded on Liberty - yet now Liberty is threatened, including by our own Leaders!"

In 2008, Schneller filed suit in a bid to block Obama from being sworn in as president by questioning whether he was a natural-born citizen. He's filed dozens of unsuccessful suits against banks, insurance companies, doctors and government agencies, including one in which he accused hospital staff of "murder in the first degree" for the "intentional" death of his mother.

Schneller could not be reached yesterday for comment. He wrote in a 2:30 a.m. e-mail that he would not be available because of the filing deadline, "followed by Jim's bicycling back to the District from Harrisburg" to promote his campaign.

It was unclear yesterday whether Democrats played a significant role in gathering Schneller's signatures. Lentz spokesman Bob Finkelstein declined to comment when asked if anyone affiliated with the campaign had helped Schneller get on the ballot.

By William Bender
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
URL http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20100803_Delco_tea_partyer_co...