Statement From LWVPA Regarding The Announcement Of Envoy Sage As The Vendor For The Senate Republican Caucus

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania (LWVPA) is very troubled that the Senate Majority has decided to hire a firm to conduct a highly questionable review of an election that has been certified and verified. The subpoena of voter data is being litigated, and Senate leaders had told the public that they would not move forward while that matter was pending. We are always concerned when elected officials say one thing, then do another.
Furthermore, we are very troubled by the lack of transparency and the use of tax dollars for this matter. Caucus funds are taxpayer dollars, and no other taxpayer funded procurements are done in this fashion. And though they are tax dollars, the contract is with a party caucus, which means this is a tightly controlled and partisan process.

The information is not on the PA legislature’s website, rather a separate one, and it states that only people in one party were involved in selecting the vendor.

LWVPA has numerous questions about the contractor who was selected, the employees of that contractor, its expertise and ability to do this work, the scope of the contract, the controls on the conduct of the vendor, whether all Senators on the committee and in Leadership will be included in discussions, will receive complete reports and have full and complete access to the work that the vendor will do, which is what should be the case if taxpayer dollars are being used.

If this effort is partisan, as it seems to be, we believe that it should be conducted by a campaign and treated as a campaign expense.

LWVPA intends to follow this matter closely.