Jim Brewster waits, works as 45th Senate race remains unresolved

Jim Brewster, the McKeesport Democrat who was a Pennsylvania senator until Tuesday, was working as usual for people who live in the 45th Senate District.

“My staff is functioning with constituent issues,” Brewster said Thursday.

But, he said, “I can’t do anything official.”

On Tuesday, Republican leadership took control of the Senate and refused to seat the incumbent Brewster to a seat he contends he won in November, albeit by a slim margin of 69 votes.

Attorneys for Brewster and his Republican opponent, New Ken­sington attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, are filing briefs in a federal court case Friday that might finally resolve who will represent the district.

At issue is whether Allegheny County’s Board of Elections illegally counted 311 mail-in ballots from voters who failed to write the date on the mailing envelope. Brewster netted 94 votes from those disputed ballots.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld Allegheny County’s decision to allow those ballots.

Westmoreland County’s election board rejected ballots with similar technical issues. The Ziccarelli campaign contends she would win by 25 votes if the disputed votes from Allegheny County aren’t counted.

“We still feel very strong about the case,” said Matt Haverstick, the attorney representing the Ziccarelli campaign.

Allegheny County went against the guidance provided by the state when it decided to count the disputed ballots, Haverstick said.

“I’m hopeful the judge will make a speedy decision,” Brewster said. “In the meantime, we are preparing a document that will request the Senate swear me in. We feel the election is over, it’s certified, they should have sworn me in.”

Brewster was dismayed by what happened in Harrisburg on Tuesday and in Washington the following day as some in the GOP have refused to accept the results of the election.

“I can’t imagine anybody, regardless of your part affiliation, that thinks it’s OK to break into the Capitol,” Brewster said. “I feel horrible about the loss of life.”

One woman was shot and killed during Wednesday’s chaos, when a mob overwhelmed Capitol police and occupied the seat of American government.

On Tuesday in Harrisburg, Brewster said he could see the situation was getting out of control.

“I felt it was going to get to the point that I didn’t want to be a party of,” he said. “I was very concerned about the stress that was being put on everybody,” Brewster said.

He called what happened “a complete disgrace.”

Brewster decided to step aside and leave so other senators could be sworn in. He didn’t want family members of those who were newly elected to watch what happened.

“I knew that tomorrow was going to come,” Brewster said, referring to briefs being filed in federal court that should lead to resolution of the dispute.

Meantime, it has left constituents of the 45th District effectively without representation in the state Senate. The district includes parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

It includes Plum, Arnold, Lower Burrell, New Kensington, Allegheny Township, East Vandergrift, Hyde Park, Vandergrift and West Leechburg in the Alle-­Kiski Valley along with the Mon Valley.

“There is no one in the Senate to work on my behalf,” Sara Stulga of West Mifflin said Thursday, during a call with reporters organized by Pennsylvania United. “It is disgraceful.”

She disagrees with Brewster on many points, but supported his re-election bid against New Kensington attorney Nicole Ziccarelli in the race.

The move by GOP leaders in the Senate undermined democracy and was unconstitutional, said Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy, managing director of Pennsylvania United.

The group hosted residents, labor leaders, Lt. Gov John Fetterman, state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-West View, and state Rep. Austin Davis, D-McKeesport, in a news conference Thursday.

Arnold resident Aaron Moore said Brewster was accessible and had an office in New Kensington that was in walking distance of many constituents.

Fetterman decried what happened Tuesday in Harrisburg.

“It’s logically, morally, ethically and practically untenable, unfair. We are without representation in our senatorial district,” said Fetterman, of Braddock, which is in the 45th district.

Brewster had said if the court case goes against him he will step aside, something Fetterman noted.

“That was a sad flex on Tuesday, and it was a foreshadowing of some of the chaos that our country has been through and it continues to endure when one side of our political party structure refuses to acknowledge election results that might be true but they don’t like,” Fetterman said. “What kind of society, what kind of democracy will we have when one party’s able to disregard a decision by the people that they don’t agree with?”