Maine House rejects second attempt to impeach Sec. of State Bellows over Trump ballot case

A second attempt from a Republican legislator to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows over her decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot failed in the House on Wednesday. 

The resolution failed to pass in a 62-78 mostly party-line vote. Rep. Kimberly Pomerleau of Standish was the only Republican to vote against impeachment. 

The most recent attempt follows Bellows’ withdrawal of her decision on Monday, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a similar case out of Colorado that the constitutional clause at the core of both decisions cannot be invoked by states without action from Congress.

Trump won Maine’s Republican primary Tuesday night, and his last remaining challenger Nikki Haley announced Wednesday morning that she has suspended her campaign.

Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris) filed the recent impeachment resolution against Bellows as well as the earlier attempt in January, which the House also rejected in a mostly party-line vote, 60-80. 

House votes down impeachment order against Sec. Bellows over Trump ruling

Bellows, a Democrat, disqualified Trump from Maine’s Republican primary ballot in December after citizens challenged his eligibility under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted after the Civil War to prevent those who took an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” from holding office again if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” 

Bellows sided with the challengers, disqualifying Trump because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, however she suspended her decision pending appeal and Maine’s top court declined to weigh in until the Supreme Court decided on the Colorado case — leaving Trump on the ballot in the interim. 

The unanimous decision from the Supreme Court concluded that states cannot invoke the clause for federal offices without action from Congress.

“That instruction did not previously exist in federal law, in the Constitution or in Supreme Court precedent,” Bellows told Maine Morning Star Wednesday. “Now that it exists, I have continued to follow the law and the Constitution and to implement dutifully the guidance from the Supreme Court without regard to my personal views.”

Three hours after the high court decision, Bellows withdrew her prior disqualification of Trump under the clause. 

Sec. Bellows withdraws decision to disqualify Trump from ballot following U.S. Supreme Court ruling

Similar to the impeachment January effort, the resolution heard Wednesday called for a special committee investigation of Bellows’ decision to not recuse herself from ruling on Trump’s eligibility due to alleged bias from her role as a Maine presidential elector for President Joe Biden in 2020. 

Wednesday’s resolution added allegations of the “unilateral disenfranchisement of voters and candidate Donald J. Trump and her willful violation of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

On the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Michael Soboleski (R-Phillips), who is running in the Republican primary for the Second U.S. Congressional District, was one of two lawmakers to speak in support of impeachment. Soboleski was the sole person to file a letter of intervention when Bellows heard the challenges in December. 

Soboleski called Bellows’ decision “an extraordinarily brazen move based on her deduction [of] what did or did not happen during the events of January 6, 2021.” Speaking to the SCOTUS decision, Soboleski added, “it should be evident to this esteemed body that her judgment was flimsy at best and obstructionist at worst.”

Rep. James Thorne (R-Carmel) also rose to speak in favor of impeachment, reading out the SCOTUS decision that concluded only Congress has the authority to remove a candidate for federal office under Section 3.

“It is our obligation to determine what brought our Secretary of State, who has the consulting authority to consult with lawyers, to consult with those in the know, and determine what and how she came to her conclusion that she has the authority to remove Donald Trump from the presidential primary ballot,” Thorne said on the floor. 

The question of Bellows’ authority to rule on the matter had been a part of the hearing for the citizen challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility in December, when Trump’s counsel argued Bellows was not ultimately responsible because ballot eligibility and eligibility to preside in office are not the same. 

“Once a challenge was made to Mr. Trump’s qualifications, I was duty bound to hold a hearing and issue a decision,” Bellows said, referring to Maine law that requires the Secretary of State to issue a decision on any challenges to a candidate’s eligibility, before they are brought to court. 

“That decision issued by the Supreme Court on Monday was novel and unprecedented,” Bellows said. “I promptly, as was and is my duty under the law and the Constitution, withdrew the portion of my decision that disqualified Mr. Trump based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”