Posted on 12/23/2006 6:54:48 AM PST by jdm
Despite warnings that it could turn the new Congress into a partisan battleground, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to rule out the possibility that Democrat Christine Jennings could be seated to represent the 13th District when the 110th Congress convenes in 12 days.
Republicans and even some Democrats said they expect the seat to go to Republican Vern Buchanan, the certified winner by 369 votes.
But Pelosi, who will head a 31-seat Democrat majority in the House, has refused to shut the door on Jennings, until audits, lawsuits and a House investigation are completed.
"The bottom line here is that nothing's off the table," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.
Buchanan, who claims the election was cleanly decided and criticizes Jennings for contesting the result, will be in Washington, D.C., next month, ready to assume the duties, aides say.
"Historical precedent is that when there's a contested race the certified winner be seated," said Buchanan spokeswoman Sally Tibbetts. "Therefore, we fully expect Vern Buchanan to be seated on Jan. 4."
But Pelosi's spokesman said calls for seating the certified victor represent a Republican interpretation, not an iron-clad rule.
In 1984, for example, a Democrat-controlled House refused to seat Republican Richard McIntyre, the certified winner by 418 votes after a state-ordered recount.
The statement from Pelosi's office comes two weeks after national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said that Buchanan should "absolutely not" be seated on Jan. 4.
It is unclear, however, whether other Democrats — assuming control of the House for the first time in more than a decade — are ready for the battle that would ensue if Buchanan is denied the seat without a court ruling or other legal mandate.
"At most, he should be seated provisionally," said Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Pembroke Pines and one of Jennings' closest allies. "In my mind, I can't really justify leaving the constituents of the 13th District without representation during the House Administration and the court's review."
So far, neither a state audit of the iVotronic touch-screen voting machines nor lawsuits by Jennings and voting groups have produced evidence to suggest Election Day malfunction.
This week, the contested election entered the political realm when Jennings took her challenge to Congress, filing a contest with the House Administration Committee seeking an investigation and, possibly, a new election.
Such challenges can take months or longer to resolve.
If Buchanan takes the seat on Jan. 4, history bodes well for his keeping it. Only two of the 105 contests filed since 1933 have resulted in an unseating, the last time in 1967, according to a committee report.
Unlike the audit and lawsuit, the outcome of Jennings' U.S. House challenge could hinge on partisan politics.
In a prescient exchange five weeks before the Nov. 7 election, Democratic and Republican House leaders acknowledged gray areas in the law and politics of election challenges, foreshadowing the complicated and bruising path that could await Jennings.
On Sept. 28, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., wrote the Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee, Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan, noting that he was "deeply concerned" about "ambiguities and deficiencies" of the election contest laws.
Hoyer, the incoming House majority leader, called the law "so ambiguous that it can actually exacerbate an inherently partisan process rather than tame it."
Two weeks after the letter, both sides met to discuss the questions Hoyer raised. Another letter followed from Ehlers on Nov. 3, agreeing that changes ought to be made and outlining a proposal. The exchange died there. On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Hoyer called Ehlers' letter and proposal a "non-response."
"We're basically left with the law that covers these types of issues," said Hoyer spokeswoman Stacey Bernards.
Hoyer's letter raises specific doubts about the committee's power to subpoena evidence, which could be tested if Jennings' attorneys fail to convince a state judge that the voting machine manufacturer should turn over the source code to the machine software.
Election Systems & Software Inc. has refused to do so, calling it a trade secret. Jennings' experts hope to examine the code for flaws that might have contributed to the nearly 18,000 undervotes in the race.
Before the 1996 election contest, the committee's subpoena power under the Federal Contested Election Act had gone untested, Hoyer wrote Ehlers. Some subpoenas in that case went unanswered for nearly a year.
"When the process was tested, it was found profoundly wanting," Hoyer wrote. "Neither the courts nor the committee has the power to enforce the subpoenas."
Karl Sandstrom, elections counsel to the committee from 1979 to 1992, described the House elections contest process as one replete with "mythmaking," "partisan power plays" and "dueling press conferences."
"The House's procedures are not as spelled out as in a judicial contest," he said of contests brought under the Federal Contested Election Act. "People can easily start believing their own political spin, and the facts can easily be spun."
Hoyer's letter echoes those concerns, ending on a dour note. "With the direction of the House likely to turn on a handful of seats, ensuring that contested elections are adjudicated in a fair, transparent, and swift manner is essential," Hoyer wrote. "If the last contested House election is any guide, FCEA many not be up to the challenge."
The Democrats have stolen close races like this before.
Jennings might as well just go in and be seated .. the Republicans never fight for their own .. remember Dornan and McIntyre, and another I can't remember now from Louisiana. Republicans just don't know how to fight (or govern).
Only her hairdresser knows for sure.
The moonbat libs are trying to steal the seat and edging for a fight, but are the Republicans ready for it.
Already cut up the bedsheets and made some white flags, have they?
Republicans had better be prepared to FIGHT!!!
who appointed piglosi in charge in florida elections????
she can rule anything in or out she wnats...it is not her call....
it is the people of florida that will decide!!!
lib/dems think they can steal all elections..if they cnanot win legally!!!
We need the crybaby seal of the Democratic party on this thread. Jennings is being a major whiner and it's getting really tiresome.
If she does it, then they deserve the name "Pelosi Regime."
I think that Ms. Pelosi should over turn all of the elections in all of the districts that were illegally won by republican candidates and seat the true democrat winner. Then, the house could pass a law making membership in the republican party illegal, that anyone trying to run for election as a republican or currently holding a political office should be immediately arrested and imprisoned. Thus ensuring that the democrats will control the government they have the RIGHT to rule through, and making Senator Byrd the new president of the US.
Then she can accept the offer of Zarawhari to negotiate the end of the global war on terrorism, accept the offer of Al-Quaida in Iraq to remove all US forces within 30 days, leaving all of its equipment behind, and thus have peace in the world.
Until Al-Quaida launches its next attack on the USA, and then she can respond with sending the local police to look for them.
(sarcasism off)
But Pelosi's spokesman said calls for seating the certified victor represent a Republican interpretation, not an iron-clad rule.
In 1984, for example, a Democrat-controlled House refused to seat Republican Richard McIntyre, the certified winner by 418 votes after a state-ordered recount.
So They want to use their own actions as precedent,
how convienient.
But Pelosi's spokesman said calls for seating the certified victor represent a Republican interpretation, not an iron-clad rule.
It is also not an ironclad rule that States will never succeed from the Union. It appears that the Howard Dean "hate, hate, hate" strategy is pushing the country toward the breaking point. We are at the point of bow down and kiss their ass or kick their ass. In the middle of a world war and intense world hatred these next few years are going to be crucial.
There are too many Frenchmen among Republican congressman, thankfully Hastert the wimp is not the congressional leader anymore, hopefully the new leader has the gonads to take on and fight the effort to steal a clearly won seat.
The democrats never give up - ever. Never ever.
The Repubicans don't know how to fight - never ever.
And the few times they attempt to they are called mean.
When the democrats fight they are called persistent.
Pelosi apparently is of the "NO RULE OF LAW" school like Algore or Mary Francis Berry...........no matter which party you support call or e-mail this woman's office:
sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
(202) 225-4965
Tell her the honest and fair thing to do is to seat the certified winner Republican Vern Buchanan! Call your elected also - we Citizens mean for Rules to be followed - it's that 'keeping their feet to the fire thing'.... now do it - starting Tuesday, December 26 and don’t let up.
And they have the nerve to shout selected not elected.
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