Community Corner
PA House Republicans Strike Out On Last-Minute Push To Pressure Wolf To Rescind Election Results, Report
A group of GOP lawmakers, none of whom are in leadership, failed to build support during a virtual caucus meeting.
By John L. Micek
November 29, 2020
Find out what's happening in Across Pennsylvaniafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
A cadre of state House Republicans have fallen short in their push to get the state Legislature to directly intervene in the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Keystone State, according to a published report.
Find out what's happening in Across Pennsylvaniafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
A group of GOP lawmakers, none of whom are in leadership, failed to build support during a virtual caucus meeting on Saturday night for a non-binding resolution calling on Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to rescind their certification of the results, PennLive reported.
More from PennLive:
The resolution, by itself, wouldn’t have been binding on Wolf, but supporters were hoping it would have created a platform and more pressure for further steps including: a formal challenge to the seating of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party electors by members of the state’s Congressional delegation; or efforts within the General Assembly to name its own electors.
But after Saturday’s discussion, it was clear the House effort wasn’t going anywhere.
Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County, and Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre County, said in a statement issued as the caucus broke that they agreed the state’s elections processes and procedures need a top-to-bottom review for consistency and fairness, but they said there is no time to take legislative action on this year’s results and they will not be calling the House back into session.
In a Tweet on Sunday morning, Rep. Kevin Boyle, of Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the House State Government Committee, blasted Republican rank-and-filers behind the resolution, saying it was “damning of the GOP and its commitment to democracy our legislature has even had conversations like these.”
In the state Senate, Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Adams, has argued, without presenting evidence, that the election, which Biden won by 81,000 votes, was “compromised.”
This story was originally published by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. For more stories from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, visit PennCapital-Star.com.
