Florida 13th news

The investigation of last year's disputed election continues-

Democrat Christine Jennings was pinning her hopes of winning the 13th District congressional seat on the Democratic majority in Congress.

But a month after essentially abandoning her legal challenge in a Florida court, Jennings is finding her gamble to rely on Congress could take far longer than her supporters had hoped.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office is set to tell Congress on Thursday that it needs until September just to determine what other audits, investigations and court proceedings have already turned up. Then, the GAO would go before Congress again to determine how much additional time, if any, it needs to produce a formal report for Congress with its own research, said Nancy Kingsbury, a spokeswoman for the GAO.

That would hardly conclude the investigation. The report would need to be vetted by a task force and then voted on by a full committee in Congress before it could then go before the full U.S. House, which has final say over the dispute.

That would all have to happen in the eight weeks between Labor Day and the targeted adjournment on Oct. 27 for the rest of the year.

*****

In May, Gonzalez asked the GAO to investigate Republican Vern Buchanan's 369-vote margin of victory over Jennings in the 13th District. Jennings contends a touch-screen voting machine malfunction led to 18,000 votes not being tallied in the race. But in a telephone interview from Washington, Jennings refused to give any indication that she is losing hope that Congress will void Buchanan's win and instead install her as the winner.

"I never had any time line in mind," Jennings said. "I want to do everything possible to find out what happened."

That's congress or politician speak for- "I won't give up till I'm declared the winner."

Gonzalez said he is not willing to accept the GAO timetable yet. On Tuesday, he said he is hopeful that the GAO can be pushed to report back to Congress by Aug. 3, when the the U.S. House starts a four-week recess.

*****

In May, after months of waiting for a state court to rule on her challenge of the disputed 13th Congressional District results, Jennings asked the court to hold off on a decision, while she instead focused on Congress, hoping that would bring about a speedier solution.

Jennings has refused to say if she plans to run again against Buchanan in 2008 for the 13th District, which includes all of Sarasota, Hardee and DeSoto counties, plus most of Manatee County and a small portion of Charlotte County.

If Congress(Aka The Democratic majority) wants to award the house seat to Jennings, why not do it already? Or not seat Buchanan at all till the dispute is over with. What happened was human error, most of which was the voter's own faults. Jennings isn't going to get seated. If she wants to represent the people, run again. If the citizens of the Florida 13th believe she is best person for the job, they'll elect her. Isn't that the Democratic way rather than have others(Judges and far away politicians) make the decision?

Linked to- Amboy Times, Outside the Beltway, Right Wing Nation,