INQUIRER: UPDATE: The senator was taken by ambulance to Hahnemann University Hospital, where doctors said he had a myocardial infarction and a blocked right coronary artery. Doctors did an emergency angioplasty and inserted a metal stent to restore normal blood flow, Tuma said. “He is now chest pain-free, his EKG is looking much better, and his vital signs are stable,” Dr. Dr. Daniel McCormick told reporters. Fumo was awake and talking with family and friends at the hospital, Tuma said. In November 1996, Fumo underwent surgery on the mitral valve of his heart to correct a heart murmur present since birth in what doctors said was a non-emergency procedure. MORE
RELATED: To get onto primary-election ballots, state House candidates must submit signatures, names and
addresses of at least 300 voters, registered in the appropriate parties. State Senate candidates need at least 500 signatures.The signatures are collected on candidate petitions, which are supposed to be handled by “circulators” who are also registered voters, living in the same legislative district as the candidate. Each petition has space for up to 50 voter signatures, and each is supposed to be signed by the circulator in front of a notary public. Still, a Daily News review of the three Philadelphia Democrats’ petitions shows that in each case, scores of names and addresses appear to have been written in the same hand. “The reason that you collect more than the number that you need,” [Lawrence M. Farnese Jr., who running as a Democrat for Vince Fumo’s seat] said Friday, “is that sometimes the voter has moved, sometimes he’s not registered, sometimes he’s not in the right party . . . I am confident we have more than enough signatures and we will be on the ballot.” In a telephone interview with the Daily News, Farnese would not address the handwriting similarities in hundreds of his signatures. His campaign manager, Renee Gilinger, had acknowledged the similarities in a prior interview. MORE