{"id":163405,"date":"2026-04-11T20:36:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/163405\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:36:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:36:34","slug":"taiba-sultana-ballot-removal-affirmed-by-pa-supreme-court-ending-18th-district-primary-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/163405\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiba Sultana ballot removal affirmed by Pa. Supreme Court, ending 18th District primary challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today affirmed a lower court order removing Taiba Sultana, a former Easton City Council member, from the May 19 Democratic primary ballot for the state\u2019s 18th Senate District, ending her legal challenge and leaving incumbent state Sen. Lisa Boscola without a primary opponent.<\/p>\n

The high court\u2019s order, issued April 9 in In re: Nomination Petition of Taiba Sultana, No. 27 MAP 2026, affirms a Commonwealth Court ruling from April 1 that found Sultana\u2019s nomination petition contained a material defect. The court also dismissed Sultana\u2019s application for a stay as moot.<\/p>\n

The case centered on Sultana\u2019s listing of \u201cself-employed\u201d as her occupation on her nomination petition, without specifying the type of work.<\/p>\n

Commonwealth Court Judge Anne E. Covey found that the omission was legally insufficient under the Pennsylvania Election Code, writing that Sultana had deprived electors of information the General Assembly deemed sufficiently material to appear at the top of each petition page.<\/p>\n

The challenge was filed by four registered Democratic voters: Patricia M. Hitzel, Celeste Lillian Dee, Patricia Joan Bruno and Pamela A. Panto. Dee is a campaign consultant active in Boscola\u2019s campaign, and Panto is the wife of Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., according to reporting by Lehigh Daily and Armchair Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n

Attorney Raymond G. Lahoud of Lahoud Law Group, P.C., who represented the four petitioners, said in a statement that the ruling was \u201ca complete and unequivocal victory for the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite Ms. Sultana\u2019s attempts to characterize these defects as minor or technical, both courts found exactly the opposite,\u201d Lahoud said. \u201cThis was a material violation that had the potential to mislead voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement issued after today\u2019s ruling, Sultana said the Supreme Court disposed of the case on mootness rather than ruling on the merits, which she said left voters in the 18th District without a real choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI filed an immediate appeal and submitted a complete brief within the required timeframe,\u201d Sultana said. \u201cYet the Supreme Court refused to address the merits of my case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sultana said the mootness ruling left the underlying legal question unanswered. \u201cI am self-employed. I work as a political consultant, a caterer, and an online seller. I told the truth,\u201d she said. \u201cThe court\u2019s decision does not change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sultana said she intends to continue pushing for what she called a clear and fair standard. \u201cI took this fight all the way to the Supreme Court because I believe voters, not technicalities, not money, not insiders, should decide elections,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not done fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sultana also pointed to Lahoud\u2019s prior involvement in local races against her. According to campaign finance records reported by Armchair Lehigh Valley, Lahoud, a registered Republican, created and funded PA Citizens PAC in 2024, spending more than $70,000 to defeat Sultana in her state House race against incumbent Rep. Robert Freeman.<\/p>\n

Lahoud\u2019s Avvo attorney profile also lists a prior stint as a legislative aide to Sen. Boscola, the incumbent Sultana sought to unseat.<\/p>\n

Sultana had been challenging Boscola in a primary that Spotlight PA included in its list of 2026 legislative primaries worth watching<\/a> heading into the May 19 election. Boscola has held the 18th District Senate seat since 1998, previously serving two terms in the state House.<\/p>\n

With no further avenue for appeal, Boscola will run unopposed in the May 19 Democratic primary. In the general election, she will face Republican Scott Janney.<\/p>\n

Justice McCaffery did not participate in the consideration or decision of the matter, according to the court\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

This story updates prior Lehigh Daily coverage<\/a> of the Commonwealth Court ruling.<\/p>\n

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Jai Smith is the founder and editor of Lehigh Daily, covering local government and community across Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. He built the site from scratch in June 2024 and runs it daily \u2014 reporting, photography, video, and development. A full-stack developer by trade, Jai has appeared on Lenfest panels on creator journalism and the evolving news landscape, participated in Knight Media Forum events, appeared on WHYY, and works with Free Press on state legislation to fund local news. He lives in Bethlehem with his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today affirmed a lower court order removing Taiba Sultana, a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-163405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}