Five-term Republican incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick is in the fight of his life to keep his seat in Congress, which might explain why he is trying to remove a Board of Elections member from her seat. Fitzpatrick filed a lawsuit Thursday to have Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis Marseglia disqualified from her position on the Bucks County Board of Elections.
The Republican, just days after a Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena University poll shows him trailing his Democratic challenger Bob Harvie, alleges Ellis-Marseglia is “biased” against him due to her friendship and campaign support of fellow Commissioner Harvie – and therefore is unfit to serve.
“Taking a page from the Trump playbook, and knowing that he is likely to lose, Brian Fitzpatrick now seeks to lay the foundation for a post-election attempt to question the legitimacy of the result by assailing Commissioner Marseglia’s integrity as a member of the Board of Elections. I have no doubt that the court will brush aside this frivolous suit,” said state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who also serves as Bucks County Democratic Committee chair.
Fitzpatrick’s attorney, Jenkintown’s Geoffrey R. Johnson, sent a complaint letter to Ellis-Marseglia dated Oct. 27 demanding she recuse herself:
“On behalf of my client, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, I am demanding that you recuse yourself from serving as a member of the Bucks County Board of Elections on the grounds that you have publicly expressed your disdain for the law in election matters and publicly manifested your extreme partisan bias in the current election cycle. Your statements and conduct have amply demonstrated that you are unable to carry out your responsibilities as a member of the Board of Elections and unable to fairly adjudicate matters that come before the Board in its quasi-judicial capacity. Any participation by you in this capacity creates an appearance of impropriety, a violation of due process, and a likely violation of the Ethics Act.”
An effort to reach Fitzpatrick via phone and email for comment and about whether he’d accept the election result should he lose was not returned.
“It is deeply unfortunate that Brian Fitzpatrick is now following in the footsteps of Donald Trump by trying to sow doubt in the administration of an election because he is afraid of losing,” Harvie said.
Trump’s “Stop the Steal” speech on Jan. 6, 2021 after his election loss, which he still refuses to accept, urged his followers to march on the Capitol as Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden as president. Those actions continue to reverberate across both sides of the political aisle. The January 6th insurrection assault on the Capitol and efforts to overthrow the 2020 elections results began after Trump’s speech. Portions of the “stop the steal” speech were key elements used in a failed effort to impeach Trump.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Fitzpatrick’s lawsuit alleges Ellis-Marseglia is biased in favor of Harvie, has “portrayed an animus” toward Republican Fitzpatrick, has shown “disdain for election law” and should be removed for “conflicts of interest.” Marseglia recently participated in a campaign rally for Harvie in Bristol last weekend.
“When a public official charged with overseeing or influencing the conduct of elections publicly expresses disdain for controlling election law for blatantly partisan purposes, and publicly expresses extreme partisan bias against candidates from opposing political parties, she has a clear conflict of interest,” attorney Johnson wrote in the complaint.
Bucks County Solicitor Dan Grieser responded on Wednesday, informing Johnson that “Ellis-Marseglia has a First Amendment right to express her political views and would not be stepping away from the board.”
READ: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick Has (Quietly) Gone Full Trump
“Brian Fitzpatrick…campaigned with and was endorsed by a county commissioner in a past election cycle, the same exact situation he decries in his ridiculous lawsuit,” Indivisible Bucks County Co-leader Kierstyn Zolfo said.
In 2018, Fitzpatrick received an endorsement from former Bucks County Commissioner Robert G. Loughery, a Republican who also served on the county’s Board of Elections at the time of the election, something that the Republican Congressman didn’t find problematic at the time.
Democrat Scott Wallace ran and lost to Fitzpatrick in that election cycle. Loughery marched and rode in a campaign parade in 2018 in support of Fitzpatrick while continuing to serve in both positions, something Fitzpatrick posted about on his Facebook page.
“Diane Marseglia is our elected county commissioner, and she is obligated by law to serve on the Board of Elections. She has always fulfilled her duty to certify elections, regardless of the party of the winner,” added Zolfo. “This tactic is Trumpian in the extreme, and shows Brian Fitzpatrick’s true colors.”
