Northeast
Republicans file 12 Pennsylvania lawsuits in 'aggressive' push to end recount
FIRST ON FOX — Senior Republican Party officials announced Monday that they are filing 12 lawsuits in Pennsylvania as part of an ongoing effort to “aggressively” defend their pickup in the closely watched Keystone State Senate race.
Speaking to reporters on a call Monday, GOP officials said they have been working closely with Republican candidate Dave McCormick’s campaign in an effort to protect his Senate win over three-term incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, who has refused to concede defeat and has secured a statewide recount.
Both national and state Republican parties have filed lawsuits in four counties across Pennsylvania, urging the courts to not count mail-in ballots with either incorrect or missing dates, in accordance with a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling this month.
Republicans noted the defiance they’ve encountered from some county Democratic leaders, including in Philadelphia, Bucks County, Center County and Delaware County, areas where the GOP focused its first wave of lawsuits.
“Democrat officials are on video saying that they’re going to choose to break the law, and there will be legal consequences for that,” a senior party official told Fox News.
But a lawsuit brought by a GOP candidate over the voting equipment in Delaware County was dismissed last month by the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas as “frivolous.” Delaware County Board of Elections officials said in a statement that it was “completely false” to suggest it had not complied with all state Supreme Court orders.
“Delaware County has followed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court order since that order was issued the first time in November 2022 and has NOT processed or counted any ballots from envelopes that were undated or incorrectly dated at any election since that order was issued,” the statement said.
‘ABSOLUTE LAWLESSNESS’: GOP BLASTS PA. DEMS’ RECOUNT EFFORT IN CASEY SENATE LOSS
Senator Bob Casey (Mark Makela/Getty Images/File)
In addition to these lawsuits, party officials told Fox News on Monday that they are filing eight additional court challenges in Pennsylvania. The efforts are aimed at ensuring McCormick’s victory is upheld and confirming that only legal votes are counted.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled before the election that mail-in ballots lacking formally required signatures or dates should not be included in official results.
But Democrat officials in Philadelphia and other parts of the state, including Bucks County, Centre County and Montgomery County, have not complied with that order, RNC officials said, prompting the litigation.
Speaking to reporters on a call Monday, Republican Party Chair Michael Whatley said senior RNC officials have been “coordinating closely with Dave McCormick’s campaign to ensure that this hard won Senate seat will be protected.”
He also vowed to maintain “an aggressive, comprehensive and strategic legal posture for as long as it takes to ensure that this election is going to be certified” in Pennsylvania.
“The RNC and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania are aggressively fighting back to bring an end to this corrupt and despicable conduct” in the state, Whatley said.
PENNSYLVANIA DEMOCRATS SLAMMED FOR COUNTING ILLEGAL BALLOTS IN SENATE RACE: UNBELIEVABLY ‘BRAZEN’
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens as U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick speaks during a campaign rally in Reading, Pa., on Nov. 4, 2024. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
McCormick’s unofficial margin of victory stands at roughly 17,000 votes, or within the 0.5% threshold required under Pennsylvania law to trigger an automatic recount.
But RNC officials challenged the notion that the Senate recount, which continues through Nov. 26, will change the outcome in any substantive way. They have decried the effort, which costs an estimated $1 million, as a waste of taxpayer money, noting that since 2000 there have been just three statewide election recounts in Pennsylvania, and each has resulted in an average change of 393 votes.
In a “worst-case” scenario, they said, the uncounted provisional, mail-in and absentee ballots could reduce McCormick’s margin of victory “to maybe 14,000” votes.
BATTLEGROUND STATES’ RECOUNT RULES VARY WIDELY. HERE’S A LOOK AT HOW THEY WORK
(Matthew McDermott for Fox News Digital/File)
National and state Republican officials said they have deployed “hundreds of attorneys and other observers” on the ground at recount sites in “every county in Pennsylvania” to ensure the process is conducted freely and fairly.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Pennsylvania Republican Party Chair Lawrence Tabas took aim at the price of the recount, which is estimated to be around $1 million.
He also criticized possible political ramifications of the recount, which he said threatened to erode voter confidence in the election system.
This has been a frequent claim repeated by Republicans as they seek to challenge the recount.
“The Casey campaign could end the recount at any time,” Tabas said. “And there are political ramifications of eroding the voters’ confidence in elections that has been built. So we need to stop this attempt at electioneering and declare McCormick the winner.”
“There’s no mathematical way to achieve what the Casey folks apparently think they can achieve,” he said.
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Along the Park
Dear Diary:
It was April Fools’ Day, and the weather kept changing from sunny to drizzle, as if the gusty wind was moving the sun back and forth behind a cloud.
I put my jacket on and off as I walked along Prospect Park. The trees were still bare, but spring was slowly awakening with yellow forsythias, and every child walking by stared at my new purple hair, hungry for color.
A guy in the bike lane yelled, “Hey!”
I turned to him.
“Sorry,” he said, pointing to someone else. “I’m talking to this guy.”
“But you actually look familiar,” I said.
“So do you,” he said, laughing.
I entered the park to hear pop music near the band shell. Two people with a portable speaker were dancing.
I wanted to join the party, but I realized that I hear the music, so I’m in the party. I danced along from a distance.
From high above, hundreds of blackbirds swooped down like falling peppercorn into the black-and-white woods ahead. As I got closer, I saw specks of tiny green buds emerging on each tree limb.
I left the park, passing three people who had converged because their dogs could not contain their joy. The people laughed like old friends, but within seconds they had walked off separate ways.
As I passed Seeley Street, I overheard a friend through the open window, cheering on a drum student.
I laughed. I should be getting home before the possible rain, I thought, but today, everywhere was home.
— Mare Berger
S. Klein’s Basement
Dear Diary:
It was around 1960, and my mother, my sister and I were in the bargain basement at the S. Klein department store on Union Square.
My sister, 13, was trying on winter coats in the aisle between the bins and discussing two final options with my mother when a woman riding the escalator up to the ground floor weighed in.
“Take the red!” she called out.
We took the red. I miss S. Klein’s.
— David Hammond
Brooklyn Warehouse
Dear Diary:
I woke up to my alarm at 2:45 on a Saturday morning, then maneuvered trains and city blocks through darkness to an unremarkable warehouse in Brooklyn.
Inside was a cathedral of music. Hips gyrated, and arms exalted rhythm. Fog embraced kissers, dancers, exhilaration, prayer, meditation, community.
I found my intention and connected with my spirit and the energy of bodies around me, alone and together, holding friends as family and strangers as friends.
I departed at 8:45 a.m. to a cold, golden morning, feeling lighter, freer, learned and loved.
A shopkeeper opening up for the day called out from behind me, his question nearly drowned out by the morning traffic.
“Hey, what’s happening over there?” he asked.
“Just a little dance party,” I replied. “Nothing crazy.”
— Carlie Cattelona
Helping Hand
Dear Diary:
I ride my bicycle 99 percent of the time. It’s just me and the city. I move fast enough to keep things interesting, but slowly enough to catch the weather changing or feel the mood of the people on the sidewalks.
Every so often, I have to take the train. On very rare occasions, it’s me, the train and my bike, a combination no one ever seems thrilled to encounter.
Because I know this, I try to shrink myself into an apologetic bicycle origami project once I’m on the train. I fold. I hover. I whisper “sorry” to people who haven’t even seen me yet.
On one such evening, I was trying to avoid anyone’s shins while hauling my bike up a flight of stairs after getting off the train, when I felt someone close behind me.
Terrified that I’d clipped someone, I whipped around to see a smiling woman who had one hand casually gripping the back of my bike.
“I got you,” she said, like we were old friends moving a couch.
I told her I had it under control.
“Two hands are better than one,” she said. “I got you.”
So we climbed the stairs together: me, my bike and a total stranger, moving in perfect, unspoken coordination. At the top, she let go, nodded and vanished into the crowd.
— Evan Abel
Central Park Zoo
Dear Diary:
Years ago, our nanny would take our son and daughter to the Central Park Zoo, where they could be set free from their stroller.
It was safe because the children loved the zoo and always stayed in the nanny’s sight and because the zoo’s walls meant there was no way they could leave.
One spring day when I was not working, I decided to accompany them all on a walk through the park, with the kids in their stroller.
As we passed the zoo, a guard at the entrance beckoned our nanny over and had a deep consultation with her.
She was laughing when she came back.
“He wanted to know who was that strange woman walking with me,” she said.
— Georgia Raysman
Read all recent entries and our submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter.
Illustrations by Agnes Lee
Employees at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston are gearing up for contract negotiations with the Seaport museum after quietly opting to unionize last month.
Just over 90 employees, in roles ranging from visitor services to development to curation, are now being represented by the UAW Local 2110, a New York-based union, as they prepare to go to the bargaining table, seeking better pay and other job protections.
The ICA voluntarily recognized the union shortly after the workers went to museum leadership in early April, said Maida Rosenstein, UAW Local 2110’s director of organizing. That meant the employees could sidestep a formal election through the National Labor Relations Board and instead conduct a card-counting process.
“That all happened quite quickly,” said Rosenstein.
“Our experience with getting voluntary recognition was that the ICA was reasonable about the process,” she added. “So hopefully that will continue through the bargaining process.”
The next step, Rosenstein said, is for the workers to elect a bargaining committee from among their ranks, and then draw up some specific proposals. “We’re hopeful of being able to be negotiating this summer,” she said.
In a statement, the ICA’s director, Nora Burnett Abrams, who stepped into the top job last May, noted that “our exceptional staff are at the heart of what makes the museum so special.”
“We are voluntarily recognizing our employees’ choice to be represented by a union and view the decision to organize as an expression of their deep dedication to the institution,” Burnett Abrams said. “We look forward to working collaboratively and in good faith with Local UAW 2110 toward a collective agreement.”
The ICA is just the latest local institution to see labor action among its workforce. UAW Local 2110 also represents employees at the MFA Boston, who voted to unionize in 2020 and secured compensation increases and other benefit improvements when they ratified their first contract in 2022. Workers at MASS MoCa in North Adams, the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine are also represented by UAW Local 2110.
Carter Seggev, a 28-year-old events coordinator at the museum, said seeing the MFA go through its own unionization process served as something of a blueprint for the ICA workers.
“It has been a very helpful beginner example, to sort of be like, ‘Oh, yeah, they can do it,’ and especially that scale,” he said.
Rosenstein said a chief concern among workers is improving pay, which is currently “very slightly above minimum wage at the entry level,” she said. Other concerns include protections against layoffs and other “health and safety” provisions, such as adequate rest and seating for visitor-facing employees.
For Seggev, who earns $50,000 a year at the museum, better pay is only one piece of the puzzle. He wants more transparency from museum leadership into policy decisions — and a greater say in the institution’s future.
“I like the ICA a lot. It’s a fun workplace, and I would love to have more of a voice in making sure that everyone is being considered and everyone’s needs are being taken into account,” he said. “For me personally, that’s been the biggest driving force.”
He added that, since workers went public with their organizing efforts, he’s been happy with leadership’s willingness to talk with workers about their aims. He was also encouraged by the museum’s voluntary recognition of the union.
“I know that is a very rare thing, and so far, the communication has been very positive,” he said. “I think everyone’s sort of looking forward to working together to make the ICA better.”
The ICA, which has been housed in a gleaming glass building perched on the waterfront since 2006, had an operating surplus of about $800,000 in the fiscal year that ended in June 2025, according to its latest publicly released financial statements. That was up more than a quarter-million dollars from the previous year.
Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6.
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