- New lawsuit claims Rep. Summer Lee should have had another primary rival
A signature-gathering firm is accused of blocking moderate Democrats from getting enough support to run against progressives.
Specifically, the firm whose executive director Zee Cohen-Sanchez worked on the campaigns of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders is accused of preventing a Democrat from running oust squad member Rep. Summer Lee, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
A lawsuit being filed on Monday alleges Sole Strategies took on as a client Democrat Laurie MacDonald in an effort to prevent her bid to oust Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) in Pennsylvania‘s 12th congressional district.
MacDonald, the CEO and President of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Center for Victims, says she believed the effort is a form of ‘election interference.’
She hired Sole Strategies to help her gather the signatures in her community needed in order to qualify for the 2024 Democratic primary.
Former Pennsylvania House candidate Laurie MacDonald was not able to get on the primary ballot and is now suing a progressive signature gathering firm for intentionally blocking her ability to take on a squad member
MacDonald paid for 3,000 petitions, but claims they only received 775 valid signatures. To be eligible to appear on the primary ballot against Lee, she would have needed 1,000 signed petitions.
But now, MacDonald claims that the political strategies firm tanked her campaign by intentionally not getting enough support required to get onto the ballot – and even handing over a large amount of invalid signatures.
‘She intentionally withholds the signatures until the last minute,’ MacDonald said in a statement to DailyMail.com. ‘She won’t let you verify them.’
‘You just have to wait until right before the election to see what they have gathered – mostly bunk signatures – and then it is far too late,’ she added. ‘Sole Strategies is taking the money of anti-establishment candidates to intentionally tank their campaigns.’
Rep. Lee won with 60.4 percent in her April primary against sole Democratic challenger Bhavini Patel. She went on to win the general election on Tuesday with 56.2 percent to Republican rival James Hayes’s 43.8 percent.
Rep. Summer Lee is part of the progressive squad in Congress. She easily won her primary with little competition and won reelection on Tuesday
Cohen-Sanchez worked on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. ‘It should’ve been Bernie,’ her Twitter bio reads.
She also worked to get elected Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who began serving her first term after the 2018 midterms. AOC is part of the so-called progressive ‘squad’ of lawmakers in the U.S. House, which also includes Rep. Lee.
The ‘life-long campaigner’ founded Sole Strategies in 2020 and serves as its executive director.
MacDonald’s lawsuit against Sole Strategies is similar to one filed in 2022 by former New York State Senate candidate John O’Hara after he paid the firm $20,000.
Sole Strategies executive director Zee Cohen-Sanchez worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaigns
A lawyer for MacDonald is demanding Sole Strategies repay her for the funds provided in exchange for 3,000 petitions after the firm only handed back 775 valid signatures
O’Hara received signatures from the firm that came from outside his district where he intended to run, which were therefore unable to be counted towards getting him on the ballot.
‘Some of these signatures came from miles out of the district,’ he told the New York Post in an interview in 2022. ‘A couple were from the Bronx, so these are just people [Sole Strategies] found on the street.’
O’Hara voiced his support for MacDonald’s lawsuit and suggested it be turned into a class action due to the widespread affects the signature-gathering hoax has caused.
‘Sole Strategies has become the face of election interference,’ he said in a statement shared with DailyMail.com. ‘They have election lawyers to battle every individual lawsuit and the misconduct is too widespread.’
‘I would urge Ms. MacDonald to lead a class action lawsuit,’ he suggested.
The seat O’Hara intended to run for in New York State Senate District 17 in 2022 is now occupied by progressive Iwen Chu with the Working Families Party of New York.
She beat conservative Vito LaBella by just 1.5 percent in the general election.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .