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Five Republican losers in Massachusetts ignore all the failing Trump lawsuits elsewhere and sue to overturn election results here
By adamg on Mon, 12/07/2020 - 4:13pm
Five failed Republican candidates - three for Congress and two for state representative - today sued the state over the Nov. 3 elections and demanded a judge order more than half of all Massachusetts ballots be thrown out or that an entirely new election be held, not just for the posts they lost by overwhelming numbers but for the presidential and senate elections as well.
The candidates, who joined together to file their suit in US District Court in Boston without a lawyer, used many of the same arguments used in failed Trump efforts in other states to overturn election results: That early voting is unconstitutional in Massachusetts and that the voting machines used in most communities are subject to tampering. They also charge their rights to equal protection were irreparably harmed by early voting because it benefited incumbents.
And because early voting is unconstitutional, roughly 2 million of the 3.6 million votes cast in the entire state should simply be tossed, even if their individual races, in which they obviously would have won without unconstitutional early votes, only covered small portions of the state.
In similar cases in other states, federal judges have, so far, rejected pretty much every suit, partly because the plaintiffs waited too long to file their suits, either after results have already been certified, as they have been in Massachusetts, or after voters already have used voting methods that were used in previous elections, such as early voting, which Massachusetts has used before.
In one of the more recent cases, in Michigan, a federal judge dismissed a similar case in part because of those issues, in part because federal court is the wrong place to contest state election laws, and that even if the plaintiffs could prove their case, which she said they couldn't, that "does not entitle them to seek their requested remedy because the harm of having one’s vote invalidated or diluted is not remedied by denying millions of others their right to vote."
The plaintiffs include John Paul Moran, who failed in a bid against Seth Moulton in the 6th District, Helen Brady, who failed in a bid against Bill Keating in the 9th District and Caroline Colarusso, who failed in a bid against Katherine Clark in the 5th District. Also named as plaintiffs: Ingrid Centurion and Craig Valdez, losers in state-rep races in Middlesex and Plymouth counties, respectively.
Complete complaint (1.1M PDF).
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Comments
Abusing the system
There should be consequences (beyond the karma of Rudy Giuliani contracting Covid) for people who abuse the courts like this.
100% agree although I suppose
100% agree although I suppose the silver-lining is this:
"The candidates, who joined together to filed their suit in US District Court in Boston without a lawyer"
I take that to mean no lawyer would touch this ridiculous case because their law license might be in jeopardy...?
Perhaps not their licenses
But who in the hell would ever hire them given such poor judgement?
I dunno
As always with the GOP, follow the money. Hiring fancy attorneys who can present a coherent case is expensive, and you can’t use campaign funds for it in MA without getting a judicial smack down. But if five idiots who cumulatively pulled 20% of the vote want to file pro se, the courts aren’t going to stop them, and someone from Galvin’s office is going to have to take time out of their day to go present a formal defense. It’s not like any of the plaintiffs had any chance of winning with the Chewbacca Defense in the first place, so why waste their own money on it when they could just make the Commonwealth waste taxpayer dollars defending it?
Added bonus: this is apparently happening in every state in the country, and they only need to find one judge or jury who never saw that episode of Schoolhouse Rock in middle school, and presto! They’ve manufactured themselves a constitutional crisis out of bubblegum and duct tape.
Republicans
and antidemocratic assholes. But I repeat myself.
Did anyone else look over the
Did anyone else look over the list to see if they knew any of these people??? I am happy I did not. I am so sick of this bullshit. Stop trying to take votes away from people. It is an awful look and I quite frankly am sick of seeing people cheerlead for it. Disgusting does not even come close to covering it.
I met one campaigning, and it was unsettling
Wife and I went on a Saturday shortly before the election to hold signs near a local shopping plaza for our Democratic state rep. About 15 minutes after the rest of our group left, and wife had gotten coffee, we were about to leave when Ingrid Centurion drove into the lot with half a dozen other cars, covered in signs and flags, and honking loudly. (Worth noting, at least one car was from out of state.) They circled the lot honking then piled out maskless and yelling at shoppers. We yelled back they should put on their masks, and fled. We don’t know if her group had deliberately wanted to confront ours and their timing was off, or if aggressive unmasked yelling at hapless shoppers was their original plan.
Remember the names
Remember the names:
What a pack of useless loony toons.
John Paul Moran
Unfair
Ingrid is an 'Astropreneur'
see?
This is the dumb-assery that we get thanks to the MAGA grand wizard. He throws a fit and now every downballot MAGAt thinks its "patriotic" to follow suit.
Shiva
I clicked expecting this to headed up by Shiva Dialer erm Mister EMAIL
but it was not.
Kinda surprised at this one.
Also. seems like the republican party is about to burst. What has gotten into these folks? I mean.. I asked my dad this last night
"Out of all the people in the world who are Republican, these fools are throwing themselves, their careers, and their families under the bus.. all for this guy?!?!?"
I just don't get it. There are other ways to get power and money, a man who is morally bankrupt and bankrupt himself is not the answer.
Republican Cosplay
I think this has become a kind of entertainment. They probably dress up in MAGA robes and get together in online caves, where they roll oddly-shaped dice to decide who gets to file which lawsuit.
Hey now
D&D players are pretty middle of the road compared to these loons.
A brilliant strategy
When "because early voting is unconstitutional" is their brilliant strategy, one must ask did they do lots and lots of campaigning, had at least 3,000 volunteers and lots of contributions, all enough to make them a "recognized household name" in all of the district's cities and towns?
Because according to one man's statistical analysis of campaign outcomes, that would be the bar to set in order to have a state election overturned in federal court, not some semantical argument about the validity of votes returned before election day safely either in person at the polling location, at a secure drop-off site or through the USPS.
Then again, I welcome these fruitless attempts to get their names out there as we'll have them in writing come time for the next election should be the be as brave and shameless then as they are now.
Fail Math? The GOP wants U!
Those mean math teachers, amirite? Failing you, demanding proper homework and clear answers ... WHO NEEDS THAT!
Let's look at total ballots cast versus outcome versus impact of throwing out mail-in ballots:
Updated Dec. 7, 2020 >98% REPORTED
Katherine Clark* Winner Democrat 294,427 74.3%
Caroline Colorusso Republican 101,351 25.6%
If you throw out 55% of the ballots cast AND you assume that ALL of those were cast for Clark, then maybe Colorectal could claim victory!
(294,427+101351)*0.55 = 217,668
And those are pretty damn huge assumptions. Anecdotally, I know that several of her vocal supporters in Medford voted by drop box due to age or simply convenience - they said so on the local politics page.
TL/DR: if your only path to victory is to cheat, you aren't even close to being a winner.
How sweet! We have our own
How sweet! We have our own personal kraken lawsuit now. And it's just as....factual as Sidney's!
You know, GOP
This might not have been a concern if you had just not sucked as candidates. Reagan carried 49 states in my lifetime. What's your excuse for not just getting more votes than your opponents?
Number of Democrats I voted for last month: 1 (Pressley)
Number of Republicans I voted for last month: 0
Anyone who's read me for more than a week knows my opinion of the Democratic Party. When you can't get the 37-year old guy with stock market interests and without a college degree to reward you with any votes, you done (expletive) up, Republican Party.
I have a lot of conservative
I have a lot of conservative friends who say the same thing. Unless they can do a better job of recruiting real candidates none of them want to be associated with the mess that is the Republican party.
Unbelievable that they have an asset like Charlie Baker and they refuse to engage with him fully because he's not a Trumpeter. It works out for liberals like me but it is pretty outrageous they could lose the little seats they have even as the GOP governor racks in good will.
Republicans cannibalize their own
Mass Inc released a poll last week showing Charlie Baker is far more popular with Democrats than he is with his own party. Imagine having a top 3 most popular governors in the US in a blue state no less and wanting to unseat him.
Democrats
81% favorable
13 % unfavorable
Republicans
54% favorable
40% unfavorable
Unenrolled/third party
58% favorable
40% unfavorable
in reality though
the only uh, reasonable(?) upstream GOP candidate on the ballot that sucked by the standards of the current Republican party was Trump, and the gains in the House reflect that. and that’s with Trump having campaigned as a fairly run of the mill conservative in 2020.
i wonder how much of the platform has changed since Reagan?
I'm with you, except Trump didn't exactly
run on anything specifically, and the party (astonishingly) declined to have any platform at all other than whatever the boss was ranting or tweeting about. The naked cowardice!
Counting the days till this moral stain is wiped from the White House.
i guess
i guess i’m wondering what the GOP has ever had to offer outside of 1) lowering taxes for businesses and rich people 2) enacting policies specifically designed to oppress anyone who isn’t a rich white man
Once upon a time, long ago, the GOP had a few
principles, like free trade, fiscal restraint (though watch them get religion on debt and deficits again once Biden is sworn in), environmental conservation (!), and strong foreign alliances.
Trump screwed every one of those pooches and then bragged about it to Access Hollywood.
I have to wonder
What did their parents tell them when they were unable to do something and then threw a tantrum and screamed UNFAIR UNFAIR UNFAIR?
This is just more Adult Toddlers throwing age-inappropriate tantrums.
I dear friend of mine, a psychologist and father of twins, once told me that 2 year olds were "psychotic dwarves with an excellent prognosis".
I think the modern GOP brings the psychotic, but lacks a good prognosis.
I wonder if it's actually
I wonder if it's actually something strategic (not saying a good strategy).
Somebody at Trump's "turn back the vote" team (or the "keep sending up balloons to keep the fundraising coming in" team) would probably love to point at Quixotic efforts against leftist fraud "in races all around the country" to bolster their narrative.
.
Wouldn't be surprised if the Trump campaign threw them some pocket change or couch money (and empty promises of more) to coax them to file these challenges.
To quote Dean, "I doubt it!"
The Trump campaign and any other fund with the Trump name operates like fiscal roach motels. The cash checks in but it don't check out.
Another Trump grift
The Trump campaign has been raking in hundreds of millions of dollars since the election, as deluded followers rush to fund his supposed efforts to overturn the election. It's a scam, and most of the money goes into things having nothing to do with the recent election. About what you'd expect from a crime family: taking the marks for every last dollar.
Why not both?
It's definitely a successful grift. It also serves to muddy the waters, and hey, if you throw enough shit at the wall, eventually some of it sticks. That's all the GOP has these days.
I glossed over this and
I glossed over this and shrugged on the first read through but upon returning to the article and reading it closely, this BS makes me mad.
I am part of that majority of Massachusetts voters who chose to vote early and these fine individuals would like my vote thrown out. Where were they in 2016 when I voted early in that election? Maybe that election should be invalidated too. You are trying to cast doubt on the process because you lost, and for no other reason. Even though a Republican candidate losing in a state like Massachusetts is the predictable outcome, even if we do pick an occasional Republican for an office.
I'd tell you how I really feel about these people, but then I would get one of those talking-tos from Adam about being too profane for his website.
Did any of these candidates vote early?
Ever?
What about the rest of their households? Is anyone supporting this endeavor willing to stand up and ask for their early votes to be stricken from the record?
Naked Republican hypocrisy is now about as newsworthy as reporting the sunrise, so it would be a waste of time for someone to investigate. But it would come as no surprise if they were for early voting before they were against it.
Charlie Baker needs to start his own party
There has been a ton of friction between Charlie Baker and the moronic Howie Carr MAGA wing of the Republican party. In 99% of MA, they are unelectable morons. This is no longer the party that sent Edward Brooke to the Senate
The Republican party needs to break in two. A Charlie Baker Republican Lite party would definitely win some State House races and maybe a couple Senate seats in areas where the current gang of MAGA morons wouldn't stand a chance
The Republican Party is never going to recover from this idiocy....at least not among people who went past 8th grade and have IQs over ~ 95
Out of curiosity
what would the platforms for the “GOP Lite” look like on a national level? Once you take away the open racism, and the dog whistle racism, and the sexism, and the contempt for science, and the weird eschatological death pact with the evangelicals, I’m not really sure what’s left to distinguish them from mainstream Dems.
I’m sure Charlie is beloved by milquetoast liberals in MA, but as far the conservative base in the Midwest is concerned, he might as well be wearing a Che shirt and wielding a Molotov.
HAHAHAHA, Democracy
Hey fellas, you like lawsuits? 'Cause in non-democratic countries you don't get to do that. If you challenge the state, you disappear.
Is that what you want?
Hahaha, idiocracy
They can knock themselves out getting taken apart by a judge and the rest of us can just sit back and laugh as they learn why we're a country of laws, not men. Win-win.
Do these people have any
Do these people have any concept of reality? Talk about sore losers...
There are Republican governors, election officials and even William Barr certifying election results.
These people and our current president are the fake news or like Kelly Ann Conway called it alternative facts.
Reality Check
Are these people for real? Accept the truth. Republican governors, election officials & even William Barr have acknowledged the election results.
Get over it you poor losers. Stop spreading your hate and fear mongering. Stop trying to undermine this great country of ours. As a nation we should be so much better than this.
This administration is the fake news or as Kelly Ann Conway put it...alternate facts.
EMBARRASSING STONEHAM
Caroline Colarusso is an elected member of the Stoneham Select Board.
They don't know what's real?
They don't know what's real? Many Republicans accept the results. Accept the loss and move on, jerks! America is better than lies, or as Kelly Anne Conway once said, "muffins muffins muffins"
These lawsuits remind me of something
They are the legal equivalent of "Ma'am, this is a Wendy's."
It's a shame
No Rowdy Rayla Campbell - she could screech at the judge via her ever-present bullhorn and offer to fight all comers.
Her lawsuits had far more merit
Ain't saying much, but at least she was forcing clarification of rules that were absolutely in "new territory" given COVID restrictions on collecting signitures and campaigning.
This is a tripe-bullshit sandwich.
Mass psychosis
Is this another evolutionary moment in the mass psychosis of politcal and fundamentalist pychosis?
At one time religious fundamentalists were not utterly immersed in fantasies. Agassiz managed to see a combination of Genesis and geological evolution. William Jennings Bryant could prosecute a man who chose to teach evolution and yet also saw value in socializing major industries such as railroads.
In other words one could be religious, or political but still be open other ways of doing things.
Today we a hellish implosion of religious and political extremism, marshaled by an adult-child who uses the Presidential bully pulpit to validate a childish but very dangerous philosophy. Meaning a philosophy that permits lies, deceits, falsehoods and imaginations which are completed disconnected from reality.
Trump was not the first of course. Once Nixon, and then Reagan laid in bed with religious fundamentalists it was only a matter of time when politics and religious would create a Gollem that now wants to destroy anything it dislikes.
Add freakishly extreme right wing media (Rush Limbaugh and his brethen, Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, Sinclair Radio, etc.) and we have a propaganda machine that Goebbels would envy.
Ultra right wing media is nothing new. The yellow journalism of Randolph Hearst led straight to war with Spain; "Remember the Maine."
For all the whining about liberal media, conservative media is very much alive and poisonous.
Eight years of an adult administration led to an Electoral fiasco of the worst White House administration ever. Can another 4 years of adults in the White House restore some maturity and sanity? (Well, not so long as Mitch "The Grim Reaper" McConnell keeps trying to destroy government and the nation).
There’s no “good” draw among
There’s no “good” draw among judges for these plaintiffs in D.Mass, but as a former colleague of Judge Burroughs, I can’t imagine she’s going to have much patience for these shenanigans.
They may possibly have standing (as candidates), but waiting until 12/7, the day before the safe harbor deadline (federal cases don’t impact it), to challenge a voting procedure that’s been in place since before the primaries? Not going to go well. MI, GA and others have already tossed similar actions on those grounds. If they wanted to fight this fight, they should have done it this summer and not after millions of people voted. Courts have also universally rejected any notion that “decertifying” has any legal basis or that throwing out millions of votes is something a court would touch.
They may be given a little leeway as pro se as courts try to have a little extra patience with nonlawyers (and none appear to have legal background per my google search). But this is going no where.