“Talking about election integrity” is the new Trumpian “litmus test” for Pennsylvania Republicans — and gubernatorial hopefuls are now attacking each other in an increasingly nasty race to the bottom.
PENNSYLVANIA — In a new report, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star highlights how the Republican candidates for governor are now attacking each other to prove their loyalty to Donald Trump and his Big Lie, instead of addressing the challenges facing everyday Pennsylvanians. From “legal critiques of the law to broadsides accusing Republicans of selling out former President Donald Trump,” the Republican gubernatorial hopefuls are now blaming each other for Trump’s 80,000 vote loss in a desperate attempt to embrace yet another Trumpian litmus test.
In case you missed it, read the Pennsylvania Capital-Star’s report below:
Pennsylvania Capital-Star: GOP 2022 gubernatorial hopefuls spar over Pa. vote by-mail law
By Stephen Caruso, 08/05/21
In the lead up to the 2022 governor’s race, some Pennsylvania Republican hopefuls are reaching for a new way to question conservative credentials — did their rival vote to approve no-excuse mail-in ballots?
The attacks range from legal critiques of the law to broadsides accusing Republicans of selling out former President Donald Trump. And they’ve divided the still-developing field between those who served in the General Assembly back in 2019 and those who did not.
[…]“I don’t think [Republican voters], nor I, understand why that law was voted for,” Jason Richey, a Pittsburgh attorney with K&L Gates running for the GOP nod, told the Capital-Star.
He claims the law is unconstitutional — a claim the state’s majority-GOP state House opposed, and the liberal state Supreme Court court rejected, in 2020 — and wants it repealed.
[…]Just two Republican House members voted against the bill. And despite the opposition from within his party, Wolf signed the bill into law surrounded by Republican legislators and voting rights advocates.
[…]Combine the court rulings and the long count with Trump’s baseless undermining of mail-in voting and the 2020 results, and now many Republicans oppose Act 77 — which GOP gubernatorial hopefuls have been happy to pick up on.
Former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, of Hazleton, a close Trump ally, has called for the repeal of law on social media in recent months as the General Assembly debated changes to state voting law.
“Act 77 allowed for this chaos to occur and now millions of Pennsylvanians who voted for President Trump, myself included, have serious concerns about how our elections were administered in 2020,” Barletta added in a statement.
Joe Gale, a Montgomery County commissioner, and self-styled Trumpian outsider, took an even more combative tone on the law’s approval by a Republican Legislature.
In an radio ad currently airing across the commonwealth, Gale claims the GOP Legislature “colluded” with Wolf to pass the law which “brought down Trump’s presidency.”
The ad also mentions state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, by name. Mastriano is currently pushing for a legislative investigation of the 2020 election results, and is widely seen as a GOP gubernatorial hopeful in 2022. Early polls have also found him among the top candidates, along with Barletta.
In his ads, Gale has attempted to link Mastriano to the election law he voted for, calling him “Mail-In Mastriano.”
“Any elected official who put their hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the constitution and then voted for Act 77 should be disqualified from holding office,” Gale added in an email to the Capital-Star. “These legislators should resign in shame or at the very least forfeit any efforts at re-election or dreams of higher office.”
In speeches and radio appearances, Mastriano has begun to respond to the accusation that he helped lay the seeds for Trump’s defeat by voting for Act 77.
“I think these people are just ridiculously misinformed or easily fooled by some punk out there pushing propaganda and some of these people that are spreading this kind of crap,” Mastriano said in a July 15 radio appearance.
[…]Regardless of a candidate’s stance on mail-in ballots, the right GOP candidate has to support policies tightening state voting laws, Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco said.
He mentioned a more expansive voter ID law and signature verification of mail-in ballots as examples.
“I don’t believe Act 77 Is the litmus test, per se, but I can guarantee you that talking about election integrity is,” DeMarco told the Capital-Star. “You have people running around today saying that ‘I’m going to repeal this’ … we can’t do anything until we have a governor that will sign it.”
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