A Pa. senator plans to hit a colleague with an ethics complaint. Here's why.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Art Haywood intends to lodge an ethics complaint against a well-known colleague across the aisle.

During a Capitol press conference Tuesday, Haywood (D-Philadelphia) vaguely outlined his case against state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) for Mastriano's efforts to discredit the 2020 election results. Mastriano was the Republican Party's gubernatorial nominee in 2022 and was endorsed by former U.S. President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful bid for the governor's mansion.

Haywood said he's discussed his intentions with fellow Democratic senators and that he's hopeful leadership from both parties will act swiftly to find the appropriate response to his allegations, which are mostly already part of the public record.

"I leave that to the committee. I'm confident that they will come up with a conclusion that's consistent with the facts," Haywood said.

Mastriano, though he's never been charged or accused of violence that day, was among those who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

He was also vocal about plans to subpeona Pennsylvania voting machines for an investigation. Fulton County's Republican commissioners have since been reprimanded by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for permitting unauthorized third parties to handle these machines and their data.

This past summer, the owner of cyber firm who reviewed those voting machines filed a lawsuit against a lawyer affiliated with members of Trump's inner circle, claiming the lawyer asked him to falsify his work and report that the machines had been hacked.

Mastriano also took a tour of Cyber Ninjas' 2021 "audit" of vote tallies in Maricopa County, Arizona. That review of the vote did not uncover widespread voter fraud, and public records have shown that the Cyber Ninjas' CEO couldn't make sense of his own numbers.

More: Mastriano championed AZ's 2020 election audit. Its architects, however, didn't trust him

Haywood said he believes the totality of Mastriano's conduct may violate the set of ethics rules adopted by the state Senate in 2023.

Brie Sparkman, policy counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, joined Haywood at the news conference. She characterized Mastriano as an "election denier" who's unrepentantly advanced the "Big Lie" that the election was stolen for President Joe Biden via fraud.

"If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold," Sparkman said, "our Consitutiton must be enforced and accountability must be pursued."

In a written rebuttal issued later in the day, Mastriano dismissed Haywood's press conference as a "partisan PR stunt." He said his freedom of speech is under attack, setting a dangerous precedent.

"Some could construe that (Haywood's) inflammatory anti-law enforcement rhetoric and actions led to the deadly and destructive riots across our commonwealth during the summer of 2020," Mastriano said in reference to Black Lives Matter protests.

“The senator further embarrassed himself by justifying his specious ethics complaint with a report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW is a well-documented far left activist organization founded by a Democrat operative and uses a DNC vendor (Act Blue) to solicit donations from left-wing donors."

Mastriano added that he doesn't need a lecture on the U.S. Constitution because he spent 30 years defending it as an officer in the Army.

Reprimand, censure and explusion are potential outcomes of an ethics probe, according to Haywood. He said a determining panel could be appointed by Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) and Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny).

“It is unfortunate we are seeing the new year start with political gamesmanship," said Kate Eckhart Flessner, a spokesperson for the Senate Republican Caucus. "As outlined in Senate Rules, any ethical complaints are reviewed in a thorough manner.”

Costa's office didn't provide an immediate response to a USA TODAY Network inquiry.

During the news conference, Haywood said he had not addressed his complaints with Mastriano directly. He added in response to a question about his proposed complaint impacting bipartisan relationships in the Senate: "Love includes accountability, love includes discipline."

Bruce Siwy is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania state capital bureau. He can be reached at bsiwy@gannett.com or on X and Instagram at @BruceSiwy.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Doug Mastriano to face ethics complaint, PA Senator Haywood says