Keystone Today

Pennsylvania Senate President Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) said this week that the Senate is under no obligation to honor Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) withdrawal of his nomination for secretary of state.

Corman said that Acting Secretary Veronica Degraffenreid's “threats against counties and her refusal to participate in bipartisan election hearings will be considered by the Senate Republican Caucus as we plan how to proceed with her nomination,” according to Corman's website.

He also cited what he considers major blunders by the department over the past year.

Acting Secretary Veronica Degraffenreid | LinkedIn

“If we turned a blind eye to these colossal failures, we would not be doing the job our constituents elected us to do,” Corman said, according to his website. “The Senate State Government Committee and the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee scheduled several hearings to answer questions related to these controversies. We have the constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent, not to be a rubber stamp for the administration. There would not be a need for many of these hearings if they did their jobs fairly and honestly.”

In withdrawing the nomination, Wolf accused the Senate Republicans of “lies and misinformation” surrounding the elections.  

“Now, they have requested a record number of hearings prior to the confirmation hearing of Veronica Degraffenreid as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth that focus on the same issues that the Trump team has identified as parts of the supposed conspiracy,” Wolf told AP News.

Back in November, Senate Republican leaders demanded the resignation of Degraffenreid’s predecessor, Kathy Boockvar, over her “numerous actions to undermine public confidence in Pennsylvania’s elections.”

Among other infractions, cited in a Nov. 3 statement, was that Boockvar "fundamentally altered the manner in which Pennsylvania’s election is being conducted.”

“The constantly changing guidance she has delivered to counties not only directly contradicts the election code language she is sworn to uphold, but also conflicts her own litigation statements and decisions of both the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court,” the senators said in their November statement.

Boockvar resigned in February over an unrelated issue: Her office failed to advertised a proposed constitutional amendment.

Degraffenreid, Wolf said, will continue as acting secretary.