Tom Lingenfelter
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Tom Lingenfelter is a teacher, historian, intelligence agent, businessman, and political activist from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. He is a perennial candidate for public office and was an Independent candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania in 2006.
Lingenfelter was born on a farm in then-rural Blair County, Pennsylvania in 1939. He attended public school in Berks County, Pennsylvania before earning a Bachelor of Arts in history from the King's College in Westchester, New York and 30 credits in educational psychology from Temple University in Philadelphia.
An active athlete, Lingenfelter won a bronze medal in indoor sprinting at the National Masters, was Pennsylvania's champion indoor sprinter, was a Keystone Games medalist in field hockey and shooting, and won a bronze medal at the Pan American Games as a members of the United States' Olympic field hockey team.
After graduating from college, he joined the U.S. Army. During his military service, he was designated an "expert" in rifle and pistol shooting and was assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps, where he earned a Top Secret security clearance.
Upon his retirement from the Army, he worked as a public school teacher for four years before opening his own advertising agency in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In addition, he runs the Heritage Collectors' Society and is a dealer in original historical documents and artifacts.
A staunch conservative, Lingenfelter has previously been a frequent candidate for various offices in Pennsylvania, running as both a Republican and a Democrat. He ran three times for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District. The last time, in 1996, he won 40% of the vote against moderate incumbent James C. Greenwood in the primary election. In 1994, he attempted to run for lieutenant governor, but was taken off the ballot over a petition challenge. In 1996, he was elected a Republican state committeeman. And in 1998, he challenged U.S. Senator Arlen Specter for re-nomination, winning 15% of the primary vote.
In 2003, he ran as an Independent for Bucks County controller. In 2004, he switched parties and became a Democrat, winning 40% of the vote in the party's Congressional primary, but losing the general election.
In 2005, he joined PACleanSweep, a grassroots organization founded by former Libertarian Russ Diamond to oust every incumbent member of the state legislature. Lingenfelter eventually became a member of the group's board of directors and helped oversee the recruitment of candidates to run against unopposed legislators. When Diamond announced that he was running for Governor of Pennsylvania in April 2006, he asked Lingenfelter to be his running mate, and Lingenfelter agreed. When Diamond dropped out of the race in mid-August as a result of his inability to obtain the required 65,000 signatures, Lingenfelter ended his bid for office as well. Simultaneously, Lingenfelter ran for Congress in the 8th Congressional District, but failed to obtain the required signatures to appear on the ballot there as well.
