Despite being cited and later excused by the White House for a Hatch Act violation recently, as a result of calling for North Carolinians to vote for President Barack Obama at the annual Human Rights Campaign Gala, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be campaigning for the president in New Hampshire this weekend, reports The Washington Examiner.
Sec. Sebelius called her violation a “technical and minor error” and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called it an“inadvertent error based on extemporaneous remarks.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, New Jersey Democrat, defended Sebelius and called her a “real woman of character.”
“What is [President Obama] going to ask her to do? Is he going to ask her to resign because of that? You’d probably have to arrest three-quarters of the work force if that were carried out,” Pascrell told me when the story of Sebelius’s Hatch violation first surfaced.
The New Hampshire Union Leader, the outlet that originally broke the story, points out that “to avoid any legal issues, the Obama campaign has made it clear that Sebelius ‘will be speaking to the press in her personal capacity on behalf of Obama for America.’”
In fact, according to the Union Leader, the Obama campaign has asked the media to “refrain from using her official title at the event and in related press reports, and note that we will not be taking questions concerning her official responsibilities.”
