Republicans respond to potential South Philly ‘ballot harvesting’ by GOP operative with firings, campaign attacks – By Jeremy Roebuck, Jonathan Lai, Chris Brennan (The Philadelphia Inquirer) / May 10, 2022
The fallout from the discovery of a potential GOP “ballot harvesting” operation in South Philadelphia continued Tuesday, as two state party staffers lost their jobs, the matter became fodder for attacks in the Republican primary for governor, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle jockeyed to define just what the situation said — or didn’t — about the security of voting by mail.
Republican Party officials fired Shamus O’Donnell, 27, and C.J. Parker, 24, both of whom had been affiliated with the Republican Registration Coalition, the political action committee behind the South Philadelphia mail ballot operation, according to four party sources familiar with the matter.
Prior to his termination, O’Donnell, the PAC’s former treasurer and a Republican ward leader in Northeast Philadelphia, had worked as a field organizer for the state party, most recently on the campaign of state Senate candidate Sam Oropeza. Parker, also a GOP ward leader in the Northeast, had worked as a personal aide to state party chair Lawrence Tabas.
O’Donnell and Parker declined to comment Tuesday and party officials, including Tabas, did not respond to requests for comment.
