The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●FL-15: While GOP Rep.-elect Ross Spano has been in hot water ever since admitting that he may have violated campaign finance laws by taking $180,000 in loans from two individuals, it looks unlikely that the scandal will stop the House from seating him. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi hinted last week that the chamber could vote against allowing Spano to serve, but Politico notes that a landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision would probably prevent the House from refusing to seat a duly elected member. Indeed, Spano may owe whatever career he has in Congress to the decision that aided Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a New York Democrat who was, during his time, one of the most prominent African-Americans in Congress.
Campaign ActionIn 1966, Powell won a 12th term representing the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. However, a special House committee ruled that Powell had falsified travel expenses and paid his wife a congressional staff salary even though she hadn't done the work to earn it. In January, on the first day of the new Congress, the Democratic-led House voted to delay seating Powell for five weeks to give the Judiciary Committee more time to investigate him. In March, the committee recommended that the House censure the New York congressman but still allow him to take office. However, the House instead voted 307 to 116 to prevent Powell from taking his seat in Congress.
Powell, who had no interest in acquiescing, ran in and easily won the special election to succeed himself. However, this time, the congressman, who by then was residing in the Bahamas, decided not to try and take his seat. Instead, he and several of his constituents sued House Speaker John McCormack and other House officials. Powell argued that the courts should rule that the House's vote not to seat him was unconstitutional, and that he was also entitled to the back pay he would have received as a member.
Powell's term ended before the Supreme Court issued a ruling, though he was re-elected in 1968 and allowed to take his seat the following January. McCormack then argued that it was now too late for the court to review his exclusion from the previous Congress. However, the Supreme Court disagreed.