November 14 – For a long time, mail-in ballots have been somewhat of a sticking point between Republicans and Democrats. It appeared as though more Democrat voters would take advantage of the ability to mail-in ballots.
Because of that, a number of Republicans have downplayed the importance of mail-in voting. But is that the right strategy?
As an example, the Pennsylvania Governor’s race showed Josh Shapiro at about 3 million votes. Doug Mastriano had 2.2 million votes. It was a 14 percent difference.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “The Republicans must get on board with these mail-in ballot programs.”
Out of the 3 million votes for Shapiro, almost 1 million of them came in by mail.
Mastriano had 182,000 mail-in votes out of 2.2 million.
Barkdoll said, “A lot of the Republican Party people are making the argument that the Republicans need to stop this constant drum beat about don’t vote by mail. This isn’t a good way to vote. It’s just crushing these candidates and it’s here to stay. It’s not going away.”
In Maryland, the race between Neil Parrott and David Trone came down to about a 3 percent difference. Trone had about 117,000 votes. Parrott had about 109,000 votes.
Barkdoll said, “We talked last week that this could come down to a few hundred votes. There were those 30,000 mail-in ballots from Frederick and Montgomery counties. Well they skewed heavily in favor of Trone. Much more heavily than we might have guessed.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “And given the amount of money that Trone threw at this. Between $12 million or so and maybe $700,000 to $900,000 for Neil Parrott. The win is the win. I got it, but I don’t want to hear any more bitching. You’ve got all your people. You got Oz. You got Fetterman. Everybody’s out there. It’s going to business as usual, so enjoy what you have in front of you.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7Fm asked, “Shouldn’t leadership be held responsible for this? We have the leadership that misled our Republicans in Pennsylvania in 2019 to get them to sign (Act 77) and frankly the five weeks of mail-in did them in. It’s why Democrats now have probably control of the House in the state. It was a stupid vote. I, as an outsider, could see how stupid it was in 2019. The representatives weren’t even allowed to discuss it or analyze it. They were just handed it by leadership that said vote for it. I think leadership has to be changed in Pennsylvania. I think leadership has to be changed at the House. I know it’s going to be hard if they only have a one or two seat margin – we don’t even know that yet. I think even in minority in the Senate, they should think about changing leadership and they should delay that vote until after the Georgia race.”
Even at the state party level, there seem to be growing calls for a change in leadership.
In terms of the United State House of Representatives, the majority is still up in the air, but it looks like the Republicans will likely take control with only a one or two seat margin.
While Representative Kevin McCarthy was the top guy to become Speaker of the House should Republicans gain the majority, a number of people have been questioning that in light of what happened in the midterms.
Indeed, Representative Andy Biggs from Arizona has come out to say he will challenge McCarthy’s bid for Speaker.
Barkdoll said, “I was also struck over the weekend – I hope people are sitting down as they hear this – but even calls to possibly elect someone like Liz Cheney as the new House Speaker. The thinking is the Democrats would vote for her. You’ve still got a handful of Republicans in the House that could vote for her and remember, you do not have to be a sitting House member to be elected Speaker of the House. The Republicans in the House are going to have a mess on their hands. That election could be as early as this week. A lot of calls this morning saying you need to put the brakes on this House Speakership election. Wait a few weeks until things shake out and we can figure out what to do here.”
