A Maine GOP lawmaker has moved to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows for unilaterally removing Donald Trump from the state’s presidential ballot.
State Rep. John Andrews said Thursday evening he filed a request with the Maine Revisor’s Office for a joint order to impeach Bellows.
Chuck Callesto writes:
State Rep. John Andrews files request for a Joint Order to IMPEACH SECRETARY OF STATE SHENNA BELLOWS following her efforts to REMOVE TRUMP from the Maine ballot..
THOUGHTS?
“I wish to file a Joint Order, or whichever is the proper parliamentary mechanism under Mason’s Rules, to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. I wish to impeach Secretary Bellows on the grounds that she is barring an American citizen and 45th President of the United States, who is convicted of no crime or impeachment, their right to appear on a Maine Republican Primary ballot.”
“Donald J. Trump has met all qualifications for the March 2024 Republican Presidential Primary. He should be allowed on the ballot. This is raw partisanship and has no place in the offices of our state’s Constitutional Officers.”
BREAKING REPORT: ⚠️ State Rep. John Andrews files request for a Joint Order to IMPEACH SECRETARY OF STATE SHENNA BELLOWS following her efforts to REMOVE TRUMP from the Maine ballot..
THOUGHTS?
"I wish to file a Joint Order, or whichever is the proper parliamentary mechanism… pic.twitter.com/YaixcVEk0N
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) December 29, 2023
🚨BREAKING: Maine State Rep. John Andrews has filed a request for a joint order to remove Secretary of State Shenna Bellows from office, following Former President Donald Trump being removed from the ballot.
Do you support this? pic.twitter.com/d6qIHUXobn
— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) December 29, 2023
Fox News reports:
“In Maine, the people do not elect the Secretary of State, Attorney General or Treasurer,” Andrews told Fox News Digital. “They are chosen by elected Democrat Party insiders after deals are made in the back room of State House.”
“Shenna Bellows knows that the process that put her there is extremely partisan,” he continued. “She should know better and be going out of her way to be as neutral as possible to serve every citizen in Maine and not just registered Democrats.”
“That’s why she swore an oath to the Constitution and not the Democrat Party,” he added. “We are still a republic, but moves like this fracture that foundation, which ultimately is the point of all this.”
WATCH:
🔥 Maine Representative John Andrews isn't holding back! Calling out Secretary of State Shenna Bellows for the controversial decision to ban Trump from the presidential ballot. 🇺🇸 #MEPolitics (via @TheMaineWire) pic.twitter.com/EThunRYaje
— Young Americans for Liberty (@YALiberty) December 29, 2023
Bangor Daily News added:
Andrews sits on the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, which oversees state elections and the secretary of state’s office.
The Maine Constitution vests the House with the sole power to impeach, while the Senate shall have the power to try impeachments. The Democrats’ strong majorities in both the House and Senate will make any impeachment of Bellows unlikely unless Republicans can peel off enough votes from her party. The Maine Constitution requires a two-thirds majority to convict during an impeachment trial, and Democrats currently control about 63 percent of the chamber’s seats.
In a 34-page ruling issued Thursday, Bellows wrote that Trump’s actions before the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, sometimes referred to as the “insurrection clause.” That follows a similar decision from the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this month that barred Trump from that state’s ballot.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” Bellows wrote in her decision. “I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”