Brother Accused of Swiping Negative Campaign Sign

The signs were hard to miss.

"Marguerite Quinn Fracked You!!! Vote Joe Frederick," they read.

Staked outside polling places in the 143rd Pennsylvania House District on Tuesday, the signs supported the candidacy of Democrat Joe Frederick.

Some voters took offense to them, and now one man - who happens to be Quinn's brother - stands accused of taking one of the signs without permission.

Frederick's campaign has lodged an official complaint that Sean Corr, an attorney with the Doylestown firm of Eastburn & Gray, took one of the signs on Tuesday night, as the election was winding down.

Doylestown Police Lt. Pat Penecale on Thursday confirmed that the borough police department had received the complaint. Police still are investigating, he said, and the complaint could eventually involve the Bucks County District Attorney's office or the state Attorney General's office, because of its political nature.

It all started Tuesday at the polling place at on Doylestown's East Court Street shortly after 7 p.m.

Democrat Doreen Stratton, of Doylestown, was working in support of her party's candidates, including Frederick. She said she greeted Corr, a Republican committeeman whom she knew from past elections, as he entered the church, but he didn't respond.

A short time later, she said, Corr came back to the church's vestibule, where she was handing out campaign literature. He wanted to know who had put Frederick's sign in front of the church. When Stratton said she had done it, he confronted her.

"He said, 'You crossed the line when you put that sign out there with that innuendo,' " Stratton said.

Corr wasn't the only one who didn't like the sign's message.

At least one voter called the Bucks County Democrats' headquarters in Doylestown on Election Day to say she "didn't appreciate" having to see the sign on her way into a church to vote, according to a party worker who took the call.

Even on Tuesday, Frederick acknowledged the signs were elicting some negative feedback.

But, he said that day, he wanted to draw attention to Quinn's vote in favor of Act 13, Pennsylvania's controversial natural gas drilling law. The bill imposes fees on drilling companies but has been roundly criticized for weakening local zoning laws and endangering public health.

The process of breaking up the Marcellus Shale rock formation in which the gas is found is called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Drilling opponents have played off that nickname with signs and slogans including "No Fracking Way," "Frack no" and "Frack off" at protests against the practice.

As for Corr, Stratton said the Republican committeeman started gathering up his party's campaign signs from in front of the polling place around 7:30 p.m., shortly before the polls closed at 8 p.m. Then he pulled Frederick's sign from the ground, too.

Stratton said she went outside to confront him.

"I said, 'Sean, you’re taking my sign. And he turned around and said, 'I’m taking it for evidence. I’m going to sue you,' " Stratton said. "Then he picked up the rest of his Republican signs, and he left.' "

A spokesman for the Quinn campaign said Corr did just that. Jason Ercole told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Corr photographed the sign and returned it to police.

Quinn was not involved in the incident, Ercole said, adding "the signs were as vulgar as you can get. They were thinly veiled references against the representative."

Both Quinn and Frederick were unopposed in Tuesday's primary and handily won their parties' nominations. They will face off in the general election in November.