1985 - Speaker Tip O'Neill & House Democrats Steal Indiana's 8th Congressional Seat
"Indiana’s Eighth Congressional District. The freshman Democrat Frank McCloskey, a 45-year-old first-term Democrat, led the Republican Richard McIntyre, a promising 38-year-old conservative state legislator, by 72 votes after the initial count....
After a full recount, McIntyre was up by some 400 votes"
"When McIntyre arrived on Capitol Hill on January 3, 1985, Democrats refused to seat him; the House voted 238 to 177, along strict party lines, to keep the seat vacant pending a congressional investigation and a new recount."
"Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, the Majority Leader Jim Wright, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Tony Coelho charged one of their own, Representative Leon Panetta, to lead the recount. Under Panetta were two Democrats and just one Republican."
"Republicans cried foul that the majority was trying to steal the election. Even Minnesota’s Bill Frenzel, a gregarious Republican who was known as a moderate in his disposition and politics, characterized the process as a 'rape' of the voters."
"Panetta’s task force determined in late April that the seat should go to McCloskey. By a party-line vote of two to one, the committee decided that McCloskey had won by four votes, 116,645 to 116,641."
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May 1, the House voted 236 to 190 to seat McCloskey, with 10 Democrats joining the unanimous Republican opposition."
"Republicans...stormed out of the chamber before O’Neill could officially seat McCloskey. 'Would the gentlemen remain within until I have had an opportunity to administer the oath?' O’Neill asked. 'No!' yelled House Minority Leader Robert Michel"
"As O’Neill swore McCloskey into office, Republicans stood side by side on the steps leading out of the House chamber....'This has united the Republican Party as nothing else', McIntyre told the press. 'The American people are not going to forget'."
"Arguably, the Bloody Eighth is what led to the eventual GOP takeover of the House, under Gingrich, in 1994."