A source told Politico‘s Playbook the Democrats are going all in to reverse the Republican victory in Iowa’s 2nd District. Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Rita Hart by six votes.
The Democrats have not taken a hard stance publically, but the source said the top people in the House Democratic leadership “blessed” the efforts to oust Miller-Meeks.
Mike covered previous stories about this contentious race:
House Administration Chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said the members of the panel “are keeping an open mind, nothing is predetermined and that Hart has the burden of proof.”
Interesting because the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) hired top election lawyer Marc Elias. The DCCC is also covering Hart’s legal fees:
Elias, who helped fight dozens of Trump’s frivolous election law claims in court this winter, doesn’t wade into any old House race. His presence alone signals that Democratic leaders want to take this all the way and flip the seat into Democrats’ control.“Federal law provides that this contest is the proper avenue to ensure that all legal ballots are counted and we have presented credible evidence to support their inclusion in the final tally,” Elias said in a statement provided by the DCCC.Democrats maintain that the House Admin’s rulings and the motivations of the DCCC are two different things — but it would be politically naive to believe that. The judge in this case is essentially the prosecutor — and yes, this is totally allowed under the Constitution.
Hart insists the election has 22 valid and uncounted ballots that could give her the victory:
In their filing to the committee, Ms. Hart’s legal team maintained 22 legal ballots haven’t been counted, saying 18 were cast for Ms. Hart, enough to reverse the outcome. Those ballots included some that were cast through curbside voting but not accepted by the voting machine; absentee ballots that weren’t counted because they were in a box that was marked with a lower number of ballots than it actually contained, leading to confusion; and one absentee ballot that wasn’t counted because the signature was in the wrong location on the envelope.
Democrats threw a fit and lashed out at Republicans who claimed President Joe Biden stole President Donald Trump’s election.
Now the opposite has happened, but Trump did one thing different than Hart:
Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the committee, questioned why Ms. Hart hadn’t pursued her challenge through Iowa’s court system and said Democrats were being hypocritical.“You cannot complain about anyone questioning election certificates again if you’re willing to do the same with a duly elected member, especially since Rita Hart did not finish the court process in Iowa,” he told reporters.
Democrats brushed off the criticism because Biden’s victory has “little evidence of voter fraud or irregularities that could change the outcomes”
Okay, how about the NY-22 fiasco? Republican Claudia Tenney ousted Democrat Rep. Anthony Brindisi by about 110 votes. It took three months to figure out that mess.
But the candidates went through the courts.
Hart’s lawyer whined, “that exhausting the state judicial process isn’t a requirement for challenging the election in the House.”
Maybe you should have done it from the beginning like Tenney and Brindisi?
But not all Democrats are on board:
Rank-and-file Democrats said that while reviewing the Iowa race was appropriate, they would be wary of overturning the state’s results.“The standard has to be a very high standard,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D., Mich.) “Unless we see compelling evidence that there’s something seriously wrong, then we should defer to state and local officials.”
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