Washington Examiner: Conservative group says ‘independent’ postal board nominee is really a Democrat
Conservative group says ‘independent’ postal board nominee is really a Democrat
A group that conducts “non-partisan conservative research and fact-checking” is calling into question the claim that one of Biden’s nominees to the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service is a true independent and has produced online evidence she is a Democrat.
Amber McReynolds’s nomination will be considered at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on Thursday. President Joe Biden nominated McReynolds to serve as the only independent governor on the nine-member board, which would make her a crucial tiebreaker on the panel.
The American Accountability Foundation believes McReynolds is a Democrat, and her confirmation to the board as an independent could allow Democrats to fill a vacancy later with another Democrat, illegally stacking the board in their favor.
The law limits the number of Postal Board members either party can appoint to five.
“Amber McReynolds is being put up as an Independent for the board of the US Postal Service,” AAF co-founder Matt Buckham said. “Her record should disqualify her for that designation. In filling this seat as an ‘Independent,’ she will be the deciding vote on nearly every matter including on policies related to election integrity and mail in voting. Since her nomination as an Independent, she has covered up her connections to radical left-wing groups including scrubbing affiliations from her own organization’s website. “
The Postal Board is facing several critical issues in addition to mail-in voting. The board is under pressure from Democrats to remove Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee whose efforts to implement financial and structural reforms within the money-losing Post Office were blamed for mail delays last year.
The Post Office is financially unsustainable, the Government Accountability Office has determined, and needs “legislative reform and additional cost-cutting to achieve financial viability.”
A Democratic-leaning board could vote to oust DeJoy and shelve financial reforms.
McReynolds, while declaring herself politically independent, donated to the 2018 campaign of Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, to whom she gave $100 through “Act Blue,” which raises money for left-leaning candidates, according to information provided by AAF.
McReynolds, of Denver, Colorado, was a registered Democrat for at least one election cycle (2010) but is now listed as “unaffiliated.”
McReynolds is the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, which advocates for “vote-at-home systems in all 50 states.”
McReynolds is considered a top expert in vote-by-mail, which Democrats want to expand and make permanent following expanded use during the 2020 election.
Republicans accuse McReynolds of scrubbing her website to conceal partnerships with left-leaning organizations, including the liberal organization Common Cause.
A screenshot provided to the Washington Examiner showed the institute, in the past, promoted partnerships with groups of different political leanings, including Rock the Vote, Nonpartisan Reformers, Uprising Strategies, the ACLU, and the Bipartisan Policy Center, in addition to several other organizations.
In addition to McReynolds, Biden nominated two Democrats to serve on the board: Anton Hajjar, who served as general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union, and Ron Stroman, the former deputy postmaster general.
McReynolds has not yet answered a request for a response to the charges by AAF.
AAF is run by Tom Jones, the former legislative director for Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and by Buckham, who served as special assistant to the president in the Trump administration.
The team is investigating Biden nominees.
“We’re working to ensure that leaders within the federal government reflect the values and concerns of the American people, not the liberal coastal elites and their woke allies in corporate America,” they say in a statement on their website.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on all three of Biden’s postal board nominees on Thursday, beginning at 10:15 a.m.