When it comes to impeaching President Trump, history professor Mark Washburne figures history is on his side.
The Mendham resident announced this week he plans a 2020 primary challenge against first-term Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th Dist.), who soundly defeated him and three others in last year’s primary.
Citing articles of impeachment in the Constitution, Washburne rapped Sherrill for voting against impeachment resolution HR 498 in July and for giving “no indication that she would support any future Impeachment vote despite the overwhelming evidence of criminal activity, obstruction of justice, and lying by Trump.”
To preserve the Republic, he said in a statement released on Constitution Day, “Congress must fulfill its Constitutional duties concerning a rogue Executive.”
Sherrill’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
At an event in Morristown last month, the former federal prosecutor said she needed more information before deciding whether to support impeachment.
“I’ve looked at this, I haven’t heard from all of the witnesses, which I would do as a prosecutor,” Sherrill told Morristown Green at the time.
“We are moving forward in I think a very thoughtful way. We had Mueller testify. We’re now in the courts to get (former White House Counsel Don) McGahn’s testimony” about possible obstruction of justice by the president during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Sherrill later told the New York Times she would change her moderate stance if a majority of Americans favored impeachment. Other issues–infrastructure, health care, taxes–appear to resonate more with her constituents, according to a Politico report this month.
Video: Rep. Mikie Sherrill on impeachment, Aug. 5, 2019:
Washburne endorsed impeachment last year but finished a distant third in a field of five Democrats, with 3.4 percent of the votes (1,538 votes).
Sherrill garnered 77 percent (35,338 votes) and went on to defeat Republican Jay Webber in the general election, becoming the first Democrat since 1984 to serve the 11th District. The Montclair resident, a former Navy helicopter pilot, succeeded Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican from Harding who retired after 12 terms.
Washburne is a former stock broker. Since 2004, he has been an associate professor of history and political science at the County College of Morris. He has authored a seven-volume biography of Illinois Civil War Congressman Elihu Washburne, a distant cousin who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
An avid runner, Mark Washburn finished the 2013 Boston Marathon moments before terrorists bombed it.
He pledged to do no fundraising during last year’s primary. This time, his campaign website is soliciting “small donations.” Sherrill raised nearly $8.5 million for her 2018 campaign.
