Chuck, I am quite amused by all the Republican whining about not wrapping the whole thing up in a week, as Bush campaigner and Florida Secretary of State Harris demands. Here is yet another article on how the Republicans always want to get things cleared up quickly and never, ever whine about close elections.
GOP to seat Democrats in disputed races But party leaders still plan to investigate elections of 3.
(from Detroit Free Press, Jan. 4, 1995, credited to AP)
WASHINGTON _ Republicans aren't giving up on three House races they still think they won in November, but they'll nevertheless allow the Democratic incumbents who are the declared winners to take their seats today.
The new majority leaders said Tuesday they will launch committee investigations of the contested races, but don't want to leave the seats vacant in the meantime.
The GOP's change of heart, however, seemed more designed to stave off a threatened Democratic protest than to ensure a full House on the first working day for the 104th Congress _ a day they hope will bring a historic string of votes on various governmental reforms.
Emerging from a two-hour leadership meeting, GOP officials said Reps. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn., Charlie Rose, D-N.C., and Jane Harman, D-Calif., would be sworn in along with their colleagues today.
But Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Administration Committee, said a law dating to the 1960s allows losers of close races to request a committee investigation.
In a letter to Rose, Thomas said his panel "has a strong obligation to hold hearings on the subject of fraudulent voter registration, especially to determine how changes in federal law have affected and could affect these and other related fraudulent voting practices."
If the committee finds sufficient voter fraud, it could recommend a vote by the full House to declare the election results invalid and unseat the lawmaker in question. It would then be up to the state to hold a special election. Thomas said the House would not, on its own, replace one member with another.
Gejdenson, of Connecticut's Second District, defeated Republican Ed Munster by 21 votes. The contest was upheld by a Republican secretary of state and the state Supreme Court.
Harman, of California's 36th District, beat Republican Susan Brooks by 812 votes and was certified the winner.
Rose, of North Carolina's 7th District, defeated Republican Robert Anderson by 3,821 votes.
All three losers allege the declared winners benefited from voter fraud. |
