Rep. Lisa McClain’s vote against certification an unacceptable start

The old adage goes “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

If that’s the case, Rep. Lisa McClain may have a tough time coming back from her first week as Macomb County’s junior congressional representative.

It’s hard to ignore the historical vote of the woman who had never held office until she was sworn into Congress Jan. 3.

It’s fairly certain that those who have preceded McClain in the 10th District in the past 30 years — David Bonior, Candice Miller and Paul Mitchell — did not have to deal with such a hot button issue as the certification of an Electoral College vote in their first week in the office.

Probably because Electoral College certification has never been a “hot button” issue until 2020.

But thanks to officials like McClain, what had been a rote act — certifying the votes of a nation — in January 2021 rose to a different level.

The fact that McClain in her first week on the job joined two others in the 14-member Michigan House delegation to object to legally certified votes cast by Americans is somewhere between an embarrassment and an outright display of malpractice.

Her justification: She was told by voters in the 10th District that there was malfeasance at the polls.

Huh?

When pressed on this issue Friday by a Macomb Daily reporter, McClain could not offer any specifics, simply saying “a lot of evidence was offered on both sides.”

In November, the newspaper, in an audit of county communities, determined that three precincts — including one in Shelby Township just around the corner from her home — miscounted absentee ballots.

McClain said she was unaware of this.

The purpose of our reporter in asking this question was to find out if she felt Macomb County’s vote should have been disqualified in the same manner President Trump’s personal attorney called for those in Wayne County to be tossed aside.

McClain had not heard of the issues with Macomb votes. Thankfully, they were resolved by the Macomb County Board of Canvassers, evidence that the system works.

While she was clueless about miscounts in her own district, she somehow had insider knowledge of “corrupt” voting in Arizona and Pennsylvania, the two states she sought to decertify in the early morning hours of a Congressional deliberation Thursday conducted as the embers of insurrection simmered on Capitol Hill.

Part of being a leader is cutting through the bluster to occasionally be the adult in the room. Early Thursday, McClain had that opportunity and she failed.

On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump will no longer hold office. He finally admitted that a few hours after Biden’s election was certified and as Capitol staff worked to sweep up glass, replace fixtures and repair the scars of Wednesday’s events.

McClain, who blanketed airwaves with little substance but lots of bluster proclaiming herself as the “Trump candidate” in a hotly-contested primary campaign last summer, said she wants to move forward in a government that will not include the man whose coattails dragged her into office.

That’s fair. She should be allowed to learn her way and develop her own governmental style. But will she have the moxie or ability to exhibit the type of independent streak her 10th District predecessors have at times shown?

That remains to be seen.