Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is under fire from both national and local figures following her decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the upcoming primary ballot.
And the decision from Bellows, a Democrat who previously served as state senator and director of the ACLU of Maine, quickly sparked calls for her impeachment.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung described Bellows as a "virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election" on behalf of current President Joe Biden. Cheung said the Trump team will appeal the decision in state court; they have five days to file an objection to Maine's Superior Court.
And in a separate statement, the Maine Republican Party said it will also fight the decision, including before the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. They will also seek to remove Bellows from office, party chair Joel Stetkis said.
"Right now the Secretary of State's getting her five minutes of fame, and that's all it will really amount to," House Republican Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham said in an interview Friday. "This won't stand. And Donald Trump will be on the ballot."
Faulkingham confirmed that some of his colleagues are preparing impeachment orders against Bellows. He said he wants the orders to be taken up next week on the first day of the legislative session. But those orders will have a difficult time advancing in a Legislature controlled by Democrats.
Former Republican state Sen. Tom Saviello, who part of the group of petitioners who challenged Trump's inclusion on the primary ballot in Maine, said he's pleased with Bellows' decision.
He believes she considered Trump's qualifications for political office as state statute requires her to do.
"People write me and they think I've taken their constitutional right to vote away," he said. "I have not done that. The qualifications say you cannot create an insurrection."
Saviello said he has received a handful of negative and threatening comments. Most don't bother him after a long career in politics, he said, except those aimed at his family or his business. And he said he's most bothered by the backlash that Bellows is receiving for doing her job.
If there's any point of agreement, it's that the U.S. Supreme Court should weigh in on the matter and offer more clarity. The decision from the Maine's Secretary of State comes after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the ballot, citing the same section of the U.S. Constitution that bars candidates from seeking office if they participated in or aided an insurrection — and that Bellows used in her own opinion.
