(John Ransom, Headline USA) Democrats in Pennsylvania are trying a legal maneuver that they’ve deployed before to prevent the front-running GOP candidate in the state’s governor’s race from being on the ballot.
A group called Free Speech For People, is urging the state’s top election official to scrub Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano, a Republican, from the ballot, alleging that his support for former-President Donald Trump, amounted to support for insurrection against the government of the United States because of events that led up to the breach of the Capitol, reported Epoch Times.
Left are going after Doug Mastriano! #dirtydems
Left-Wing Group Tries to Disqualify Republican Frontrunner in PA Governor’s Race on ‘Insurrection’ Grounds https://t.co/puoaD4jjUs via @epochtimes
— Angel Mueller (@BigMamaAngel) April 18, 2022
Mastriano, 58, is leading a crowded field of Republicans in Pennsylvania’s GOP primary for governor, with around 23 percent support with the next closest challenger at 19 percent in a recent poll, according to ABC News 27.
The “free speech” group isn’t alleging that Mastriano took part in the Jan. 6 protest at the Capitol in Washington D.C., but merely that he supported Trump’s claim that the election was stolen from the former-president by the use of widespread fraud, said the Daily York Record.
Mastriano has long condemned the actual violence that happened on the day.
“My position on lawlessness is equally as clear. When it was apparent that this was no longer a peaceful protest, my wife and I left the area and made our way out of the area. At no point did we enter the Capitol building, walk on the Capitol steps or go beyond police lines,” said a statement by Mastriano on Janu. 6, 2021
But that hasn’t stopped progressives from somehow trying to tie Mastriano to the violence.
“Long before Mastriano launched his bid for higher office, he repeated unproven claims about the 2020 presidential election and held an investigatory hearing without sworn testimony,” said the Record, as if either repeating “unproven claims” or holding an investigation without “sworn testimony” is a criminal act.
On that basis, Free Speech for People is asking the commonwealth’s Secretary of State, Leigh Chapman, a Democrat, to disqualify Mastriano from the election ballot in a letter sent to Chapman’s office.
“You have the authority and responsibility to determine, as part of the state ballot qualification process, that because Mr. Mastriano engaged in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Mastriano is ineligible to appear on the gubernatorial ballot or on any other ballot for office in the state of Pennsylvania,” the letter states, according to the Epoch Times.
A bevy of Republicans are being challenged by progressives on the insurrection claim, attempting to disqualify them from election ballots, said the New York Times.
