Congress Tim Holden will have opposition in the Primary Election on May 18 as the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rejected his petition to have Attorney Sheila Dow Ford's name removed from the ballot because of a faulty nominating petition filed in Harrsiburg's Election Bureau.

State law requires candidates get at least 1,000 signatures and all who sign must live in the district . All the signatures had to be registered Democratic voters.The ruling was made by Senior Judge James R. Kelly. Holdlen's camp filed the petition claiming some of the signatures came from Democrats living outside the 17th District and also some signatures were not registered Democrats. A total of 695 signatures were challenged. The court overruled the challenges.