Former President Donald Trump walks off stage during a commit to caucus rally, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Coralville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Published December 29, 2023
Not even all of Donald Trump’s political foes are on board with efforts to kick the former president off the ballot because of his involvement with the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Most Democrats and some Republicans don’t want Donald Trump to be president again. But many in that group still think the indicted former president should be allowed to try.
Maine on Thursday became the second state to determine that Trump is not eligible to be on the ballot because of a Civil War-era provision of the Constitution that says former public officials who engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States are ineligible to hold office again. As with Colorado – where a state court last week said Trump was ineligible to appear on the ballot there – the decision by the Maine secretary of state will be on hold while the cases go through the courts.
Not all Democrats – or even Republicans trailing Trump in primary polls – are celebrating.
“I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th insurrection. I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of the United States,” Democratic Rep. Jared Golden said in a statement after his home state of Maine said Trump was not eligible to be on the ballot there.
“However, we are a nation of laws, therefore, until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot,” Golden said.
His congressional colleague from Maine, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, disagreed, writing on social media, “The text of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear. No person who engaged in an insurrection against the government can ever again serve in elected office.”
California’s Democratic secretary of state, Shirley Weber, certified Trump on the Golden State’s ballot for the March 5 primary hours after her Maine counterpart, Shenna Bellows, said Trump was not eligible to be on the ballot there on the same primary day.
Weber’s decision runs counter to an open letter by the state’s lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, to boot Trump from the ballot.
“California must stand on the right side of history,” Kounalakis said in her missive.
But Weber’s move is in sync with what California Gov. Gavin Newsom – himself a rising star in Democratic politics – says is the best way to deal with Trump.
“There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy,” Newsom said in an earlier statement. “But, in California, we defeat candidates at the polls.”
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SOURCE: www.usnews.com
RELATED: Maine official who removed Trump from ballot responds to fierce criticism
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RELATED: Maine Law ‘Required That I Act’ to Disqualify Trump, Secretary of State Says
Barring former President Donald J. Trump from the primary ballot was a hard but necessary call, Shenna Bellows said in an interview.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, says she did not make her ballot decision lightly.Credit…Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
Published December 29, 2023
Before she decided to bar former President Donald J. Trump from Maine’s primary ballot, Shenna Bellows, the secretary of state, was not known for courting controversy.
She began her career in public office as a state senator in 2016, winning in a politically mixed district. She prided herself on finding common ground with Republicans, an approach she said was shaped by growing up in a politically diverse family.
As the former head of the state’s American Civil Liberties Union, Ms. Bellows did not shy away from divisive issues. But her ballot decision on Thursday was perhaps the weightiest and most politically fraught that she had faced — and it sparked loud rebukes from Republicans in Maine and beyond.
In an interview on Friday, Ms. Bellows defended her decision, arguing that Mr. Trump’s incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol made it necessary to exclude him from the ballot next year.
“This is not a decision I made lightly,” Ms. Bellows, 48, said. “The United States Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Maine election law required that I act in response.”
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SOURCE: www.nytimes.com
