U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, began a Monday news conference in Aspinwall by mocking Republican chaos in the House of Representatives while taking care to respect all the hardworking, facepaint-wearing folks who ride unicycles, juggle bowling pins and make balloon animals.
“I would call it a clown show,” Deluzio said of House Republicans’ so-far unsuccessful efforts to elect a speaker, “but I have too much respect for hardworking circus workers.”
He then tied all that clownishness (oops, sorry circus workers) to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and to state and local politics.
“This extremism on the right is not just in Washington,” Deluzio said. “It was here in Pennsylvania.”
He noted the “frivolous litigation” in state (and federal) courts to try to overthrow the election results, efforts in the general assembly to bolster Trump’s lies about election results, and schemes to use fake electors to cast votes for Trump after President Joe Biden had won the state.
“They had help in Allegheny County,” Deluzio said. “The chair of the Republican party in Allegheny County, who sits on the board of elections, was part of the fake election scheme.”
Deluzio never mentioned Sam DeMarco by name, but anyone who’s paid even marginal attention to local politics the past few years could figure out who he was talking about. DeMarco currently serves as an at-large representative on Allegheny County Council, which gives him a seat on the county’s three-seat Board of Elections. He’s also chair of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County.
Biden won the state of Pennsylvania, but DeMarco was one of several so-called “fake electors” who gathered in Harrisburg after the election. These alternate electors submitted votes for Trump, though those alternate votes were only to be counted if a court found the electors were qualified and “duly elected.”
DeMarco was also the lone “no” when the board of elections eventually voted 2-1 to certify the 2020 results.
Control of that board is at stake in the upcoming Allegheny County elections. The board comprises the county executive and the County Council’s two at-large members, currently DeMarco and Democrat Bethany Hallam. Democrat Sara Innamorato and Republican Joe Rocky are vying for the county executive job — the outcome of that race will determine which party holds the election board majority.
Rockey has, to some extent, tried to distance himself from Trump, calling the former president divisive and saying he won’t support him in the future. Deluzio said that wasn’t enough.
“I do not want to roll the dice on handing over control of our board of elections and our democracy to a party and politicians who are still unwilling to denounce this extremism. It is a clear and present danger to our freedom. I see political cowardice every day on display in Washington, and I see it right here in Allegheny County. If you do not have the courage to say Donald Trump and his anti-democratic forces are a threat to our freedom, if you cannot denounce it, you don’t have the spine, I think, to do your duty in this job. You should not be leading our board of elections.”
Steve is a photojournalist and writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he is currently on strike and working as a Union Progress co-editor. Reach him at smellon@unionprogress.com.