State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, along with two other Republican state representatives, was thrown off the April 27 primary ballot after losing a court case involving financial disclosures included with Benninghoff's candidate filing papers.

Judge Dan Pellegrini wrote the opinion of the majority, consisting of him and Judge Robert Simpson. Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt wrote the dissenting opinion, which said the state Ethics Commission, not the court, should address problems in the financial statement.

According to the majority opinion, Benninghoff violated the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act by not listing his income as a state legislator under block 10 of the Statement of Financial Interests. However, he listed his job as a legislator on other areas of the statement.

Benninghoff said the mistake on the ballot was a matter of oversight. He added that several Democrats who made the same mistake were given notice to correct the problem.

"Even some of the Democrats came to us and said this is crazy, and that we were allowed to amend it, so you should be allowed to amend it," he said.

The Ethics Act states that if a candidate should fail to file the statement correctly, the candidate will be removed from the ballot.

"It was a very simple oversight. It would be different if this wasn't public information," Benninghoff said. "Our salaries are posted on the Web. A lot of newspapers publish our salaries. It's not like it's hiding information."

Lawrence Tabas, the attorney representing Benninghoff, as well as representatives Chris Ross, R-Chester County, and William Gabig, R-Cumberland County, said he is currently working on an appeal to the ruling.

Tabas also said the election code statutes had been violated because under the election code, a case must be heard 10 days within the time a nomination is filed. Benninghoff filed his papers on Feb. 17, and the case was heard March 17.

"Our hearing should have taken place Feb. 27 and ruled March 1. They gave my three clients very little time, and then they violated the language of the statute," Tabas said. "They picked and chose which statute to apply 100 percent and which not to. And they have placed our clients in a very difficult place to pursue electoral remedies."

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court legal staff said other court case opinions exist stating that the court does not have to abide by the statute.

State Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Centre, said despite the current status of the case, he is confident Benninghoff will be successful in a write-in campaign but admonished the case as political.

"It's too bad that Harrisburg politics has to interject itself into the electoral process of Centre County," he said.

Benninghoff is currently unopposed in the primary, but will need a minimum of 300 write-in votes to win. Should he succeed in a write-in campaign, he will be placed on the ballot for the general election in November.

"I worked hard to get here. I've been here seven years; I'm not going to let go. We will pull the troops together. To me, this circumvents the democratic process," he said.

Glenn Thompson, Centre County Republicans chair, said the group is committed to a write-in campaign for Benninghoff.

"Our party is united, as most of the 171st district is united, behind Rep. Benninghoff," Thompson said. "He is one of the best public servants we have. We're certainly prepared to run a very successful write-in campaign."