A Democratic campaign manager for Mark Pinsley’s 2024 campaign for auditor general entered a guilty plea deal in Chester County over fraudulent petitions in that race this week.
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Mariel Kornblith-Martin, 41, of Philadelphia, was charged earlier this year by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office for filing fraudulent nomination petitions while working for Pinsley, the Lehigh County controller, during his unsuccessful 2024 primary campaign against State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. (Kenyatta went on to lose that general election against Republican Auditor General Timothy DeFoor).
Kornblith-Martin was accused of paying college students for signing off on campaign petitions with forged signatures on them, and those signatures included the names of multiple elected officials, including a Chester County judge.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal solicitation, specifically unsworn falsification to authorities. She had been charged with 50 crimes: 40 counts of criminal solicitation and ten counts of breaking election law.
The political operativewas sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and must pay a $1,000 fine plus costs associated with the case.
At the time, Pinsley was running in a competitive Democratic primary for auditor general, a race he lost. He is now the Democratic nominee for akeystate Senate seat that includes parts of Bucks and Lehigh Counties.
The Inquirer reported in 2024 that his petitions had the names of multiple elected officials who said they never signed them including Coatesville City Council members Carmen Green and Khadija Al-Amin, and West Goshen Township Supervisor Nate Wolman.
Perhaps most striking was a fraudulent signature for Chester County Judge Alita Rovito. Rovito, a Democrat, told The Inquirer in 2024 that she reported the forgeryto the district attorney’s office. She said at the time that “the use of my name and signature is concerning to me due [to] the potential implications on my role as a member of the independent judiciary.”
Ironically, Rovito was initially assigned to Kornblith-Martin’s case in May of this year. She recused herself and Judge Sarah Black took over the case.
Kornblith-Martin had given three college students “stacks of pages containing signatures of supporters” and asked them to sign the required sworn declaration at the bottom of each page in exchange for money, according to the district attorney’s complaint. The Inquirer previously identified these young people as Temple University students.
Al-Amin, one of the local elected officials who also sits on the county’s Democratic committee, said in an interview Friday that she’s satisfied that the campaign manager was “held accountable for her actions.”
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“I’ve sat on many campaigns in different positions: consultant, chair, manager,” she said. “ I would never even think about doing something like that. If you can’t win an election honestly, then the position is not for you.”
But she questioned what she sees as a failure in oversight on Pinsley’s part. In his current role, he is responsible for overseeing audits in Lehigh County.
“As her boss I think he should have known what she was doing … She ran his campaign,” she said. “He should have had regular contact with her.”
Gary Masino, Pinsley’s current campaign manager, said in a statement Friday that “Mark believes the justice system worked effectively and fairly in this case.”
“He was disheartened to learn about Mariel’s crime, but respects that she took responsibility by pleading guilty and that the matter is resolved,” he said.
Pinsley previously told The Inquirer that his campaign reviewed the signature issue after concerns were raised but lacked “enough verified information” to reach a conclusion.
The petitions had glaring red flags, Al-Amin noted, such as the town of Downington being written as “Downtown.” She pointed out at the time that the geographic routes on the petitions didn’t make sense. And petitions had dates on them prior to the petitioning period, names written oddly, and signatures in strikingly similar handwriting.
“You could look at the pages and you could tell that there was really something wrong,” she said Friday.
Back in 2024, Martin had told the Inquirer herself that the campaign was doing an internal investigation and declined to comment further. She has not responded to requests for comment since a February 2024 text in which she said: “We are still doing an investigation internally. I have no further statement until our investigation is over.”
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