Mark Houck Cited By CatholicVote — Mark Houck, the civil rights activist who is challenging incumbent Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick in the state’s 2024 Republican primary election, is among November’s “heroes” in CatholicVote.org’s monthly Heroes & Zeros feature.
The snippet reads:
Mark Houck, the Pennsylvania father and pro-life activist who was acquitted of violating the FACE Act in January, announced this month that he is suing the Biden administration’s Department of Justice. His goal? To “put an end” to the Biden administration’s “unjust persecutions” of pro-lifers.
“I think if the DOJ gets hit hard enough and there’s a big enough black eye against them, then they’re going to cease and desist from coming after pro-life people and people of faith,” he said.
Prior to his acquittal, Houck faced a possible sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison. A jury found him not guilty after only an hour of deliberation.
Fitzpatrick represents the 1st District which consists of Bucks County along with parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia.
RightForBucks GOP Bylaws Project — Andy Meehan has let us know that RightForBucks of Bucks County, Pa. has a new webpage concerning Pennsylvania GOP bylaws.
“Patriots from all over the Commonwealth should be following our lawsuit and filing their own when they discover that their bylaws are illegitimate, unregistered, non-compliant,” Andy says.
Brian Fitzpatrick To Be Primaried By Mark Houck — Civil Rights activist Mark Houck announced, today, Aug. 2, that he will challenge incumbent Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick in the state’s 2024 Republican primary election, which will be April 23.
The announcement was made on Don’t Back Down hosted by Stan Casacio and Andy Teitelman on WWDB.
Fitzpatrick represents the 1st District which consists of Bucks County along with parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia.
Houck made national news when he was arrested at his home the early morning of Sept. 23 by 25 heavily armed FBI agents who arrived in a convoy of 15 vehicles.
Houck was charged with a federal law prohibiting the blocking of access to abortion clinics for incident that occurred in October 2021. He was acquitted by a Philadelphia jury on Jan. 30 when it was revealed he was no where near the clinic’s entrance and the incident, which involved minor shoving, had been instigated by abortion-escort Bruce Love. Love walked 50 feet to where Houck was and berated his daughter.
Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, is known for his hatred of the anti-globalist MAGA movement. He was one of just nine House Republicans to vote to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress.
Houck is a teacher who has a masters degree in education.
Bucks GOP Sued For Alleged Reorg Violations — Barry Casper and 50 other Bucks County, Pa. Republican committee members are suing the county GOP and Chairwoman Pat Poprik for a byzantine series of screw-ups stemming from its June 25, 2022 reorganization.
The election, in which Pat kept power by beating back Barry’s challenge , is alleged to have been held without valid bylaws — an amazing bit of idiocy that we described here — and would have broken the bylaws purportedly in use anyway.
The plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Andy Teitelman of Huntingdon Valley.
The suit claims that without valid bylaws the rules should have defaulted to state law regarding how non-profit organizations elect officers.
This would have prohibited the casting of proxy votes.
Pat Poprik
Proxy votes determined the outcome of the 2022 election.
Also, a secret ballot would have been required as per Robert’s Rules of Order which is the gap-filler for items not specifically covered.
The election was by roll call.
The suit also says that if the bylaws used were legitimate, a secret ballot would have been required anyway, and the way the proxy votes were cast would also have been prohibited.
Proxy votes, actually, would have been prohibited for those party officers who were also elected to Executive Committee.
Also, prohibited would be the casting of votes by post-primary appointed committee people. Ms. Poprik appointed 50 committee persons in the weeks between the primary and June 25
The suit asks that:
The June 2022 election be voided
New bylaws be written by those who were committee members as of May 17, 2022
All committee members and executives appointed by Ms. Poprik be removed from office
The state party oversee county party operations until a reorganization meeting to elect new officers and executive committee in accordance with the new bylaws
Current officers including Ms. Poprik not have any position of authority while the state GOP is in control.
Also named in the suit are Bucks GOP Vice Chairman Joseph A. Cullen, Secretary Joseph Pizzo; Treasurer David Breidinger, and Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Colleen Strunk.
Also being sued are the state Republican Party, State GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas, and the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania.
Tabas and the state GOP are accused of wrongfully ignoring an ethics complaint filed by Casper regarding the Bucks bylaws and election.
The Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania is a name sometimes used by the State GOP.
Bucks County Election Case Before Commonwealth Court — A hearing Wednesday, April 5, in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court concerned the interpretation of a state law stemming from election challenges filed in Bucks County.
What was in dispute was an apparent conflict between Section 1701 and Section 1703 of Article XVII of the Pennsylvania Election Code.
Section 1701 allows for three qualified voters of a district to demand the “ballot box” be opened “upon information which they consider reliable, they believe that fraud or error, although not manifest on the general return of votes, was committed.”
The respondents, which were the Bucks County Bureau of Elections and the Pennsylvania Department of State, argued that Section 1703 says that for elections that covered more than one district — which would be all elections except for Judges of Elections and similar offices — a petition would have to be filed in each district requiring three voters from each district and the placing of a bond. The bonds in a state-wide race would require several million dollars.
Section 1703 says “a recount or recanvass shall include all election districts in which ballots were cast for the office in question.”
Opening a single machine on suspicion is obviously not recounting an entire race. Improprieties one machine, however, could and should lead to investigating other machines, and a recount. Rigged ballots in one place are prima facie evidence of a stolen election, and the residency and bond requirements would not apply.
Attorney Andrew Teitelman, who was working pro bono, argued for 111 Bucks County residents who saw troubling events in the 2022 elections. Many filed pro se petitions to start things.
A decision is pending. Any decision will not affect the results of the election but would provide clarity for the future.
And we have been told that the Department of State did not insert itself in the case until two days prior to the hearing.
Abortion Pill Causes Dangerous Pregnancy Complications; Body Parts Not Necessarily Expelled; Dangerous And Toxic — Jessica of Montgomery County -based ProLIfeNews interviewed in February retired Superior Court Judge Cheryl Allen, who now serves as counsel for PA Family.
Among the subjects is how the ease in which abortion pills are now distributed is causing serious complications for many young women.
She noted one little discussed consequence in the unremitting encouragement of their use is ‘retained products of conception.’
“Which really means baby parts,” she said. “These pills are supposed to expel . . . the fetus but there’s no guarantee that every part of the baby’s body is expelled. Any part that is not expelled from the woman’s body can be very dangerous and toxic”
Medical authorities claim it is safe to take these pills up to 10 weeks in a pregnancy. Prescriptions are required to get them but they may be obtained via telemedicine which means there is no physical examination. Many of those getting these prescriptions are immature and/or poorly educated.
Without a physical examine and a certainty as to how advanced is the pregnancy, the likelihood of a bad outcome is far, far higher.
Since the interview, Walgreen’s Pharmacy has announced that it will not distribute abortion medication in 20 states.
“For someone to be able to get a prescription like this without a physical examination, is really dangerous,” Judge Allen said.
In another matter, she said the University of Pittsburgh has no intentions of stopping experimentation on aborted fetuses even if it means losing state funding.
She said that if state funding is cut off from Pitt, it is prepared to go back to being a private university as it was before 1966. No tears here if that happens.
Poprik Claims She Can’t Fill Committee Vacancies — Bucks County GOP Chairwoman Patricia Poprik told PhillyBurbs.com that grassroots activists are lying about how she is purposely leaving committee seats vacant to maintain power.
If you can’t cook, get out of the kitchen
She said she has been desperately tying to fill the 200 or so vacancies but nobody wants to step in.
Andy Meehan, the leader of the rebellious faction, says he would have no problem filling them.
Hey Pat, if you can’t fill them and he says he can why not give him the chance? It’s all about strengthening the party, right? If you can get the people elected who will protect the county from impoverishment and servitude, you don’t care about being the boss, right?
Right?
Poprik Claims She Can’t Find People To Fill Committee Vacancies
Bucks County GOP Counterfeit Bylaws Mystery — The Bucks County GOP stands accused of having organized using a counterfeit set of bylaws.
Republicans opposed to Chairwoman Patricia Poprik filed a complaint with the party’s Ethics Committee, Jan. 10, accusing the leadership of misdeeds including subversion of bylaws, wrongful appointments of committeepeople, proxy irregularities at the June 25 reorganization meeting in which Ms. Poprik nearly lost her job, and the falsification of government documents.
The latter concerned the bylaws on file with the county.
The county demands of organizations that use the county voting machines a set of their bylaws.
The rebel faction found that the ones held by the Board of Elections were produced with a word processor despite having a June 26, 1972 filing date. Further, they weren’t hand-signed albeit the signature of then chairman C.V. Afferback was stylishly set in an italic font.
So the party bosses get the complaint. The rebels go back for another look at the bylaws on file and lo and behold, they had been replaced with the original typewritten ones with C.V.’s very own penmanship.
The only significant difference that we could find was the removal of a paragraph in Rule VI, Article 4 relating to the party headquarter building.
So why was the document switched out in the first place? Why did they keep the original ready to be switched back? It seems more Burn-After-Reading stupid than nefarious but who knows.
And its stupidity that loses elections.
And this document shuffling still violates, well, the bylaws.
If it gets rid of Pat it works for us.
The mysterious missing paragraph
Here are the typewritten and word processor versions of the bylaws.
F. Todd Polinchock, a two term GOP incumbent lost in the November election. One of his many issues was tougher gun legislation and other anti-crime measures. He also wanted greater energy production.
The Democrat winner, Brian Munroe had 16,123 votes to Polinchock’s 15,608 or 50.8 percent. A victory but hardly a mandate.
Brian Munroe
PA house district 144 consists of 5 areas in Bucks County. Since it’s creation in 1969, all the State House representatives had been Republican.
Munroe has been an emergency medical technician and a Radnor Police officer. He was also a volunteer firefighter. He is a US Navy Veteran.
Among his signature positions are pro-choice, Green Jobs, increasing healthcare coverage, and a iving wage. He has also come out for free community college. For other positions, see his website.
Reviewing the five PA House incumbents who lost, four of them were GOP. Some of this was due to redistricting and some may have been the statewide candidates at the top of the ticket.
Or maybe something else.
Like in many political setbacks, there are lessons to be learned by more astute minds than mine.
