No, I’m not referring to the most recent presidential election, even though many Trump supporters are still convinced that there were sufficient election irregularities in key states, like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona, to have constituted, in effect, the theft of an election. No, I’m referring to the 2nd Congressional District of Iowa.
The congressional contest between Republican Dr. Marionette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Rita Hart turned out to be a real barn burner. Republican Miller-Meeks won, but it was close – very close – six votes close.
It was so close that there were bipartisan counts, recounts, and recounts of the recounts. But the Republican still won, and the Iowa State Canvassing Board (also bipartisan) declared Republican Miller-Meeks the winner, and the state of Iowa sent its certification to Washington.
Interestingly (and revealingly) under Iowa law, if a candidate disputes the state’s certification, that candidate has the right to challenge the decision in the Iowa courts; Democrat Rita Hart, however, failed to do so. So on January 3, Republican Miller- Meeks was sworn in as the representative of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, and has been serving in that capacity, and voting in Congress on behalf of her constituents, for the last three months.
Now, incredibly, Democrat Rita Hart is trying to get Speaker Nancy Pelosi to overturn the voters of Iowa’s 2nd District, and replace Representative Miller-Meeks with herself. And shockingly (although knowing how Pelosi operates, maybe not so shockingly) Pelosi seems inclined to actually do it. It would, of course, take a majority vote in the House, but Democrats are in the majority, and thus far this Congress seems willing to do whatever Pelosi wants.
There is precedent for this. Back in 1985 (the year I was first elected to Cincinnati City Council – I first arrived in Congress in 1994) the Democrats pulled a similar power grab. That time it was Indiana’s 8th Congressional District, and the Republican candidate had won by 418 votes. As in the Iowa case, Indiana certified the Republican candidate, Richard McIntyre, the winner, but the Democrats in the House decided to seat the Democrat, Frank McCloskey, instead. The bad blood that resulted from that election steal was so bitter, that that district has forevermore been referred to as “the Bloody Eighth.”)
Will the Democrats actually do it again? We’ll know soon enough. Word is that some Democrats are worried that if they do do it, it could hurt them next time at the polls “because the optics are so bad.” On the other hand, Pelosi has a very narrow margin in the House, and she needs every vote she can get to continue to ram through the radical agenda she’s so committed to.
Yes, she already got through the nearly-$2 trillion so-called COVID Relief Bill (of which only 9% actually went to COVID relief.) But she still wants to pass a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill, which will actually be a stalking horse for the radical Green New Deal; election reform (HR 1), which will give the Democrats a permanent grip on elections and power; a tax bill, which will raise taxes to confiscatory levels; and so much more.
Only time will tell whether Iowa will have its own “Bloody Second.” And we’ll all have a whole lot less money in our pockets.