A: King County has Normron Maleng. Waukesha County doesn't.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec. 21, 2006:
Donovan Riley, a disgraced state Senate candidate, is paying a steep price for voting twice in the same election in 2000.Normron turns a blind eye to election illegalities. The Democrats let him run unopposed. I'm just sayin'. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 30, 2007 05:20 PM | Email ThisRiley, Democrat, agreed on Thursday to pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his law licenses in Wisconsin and Illinois and not practice law. He must also return campaign contributions to supporters who request refunds in the next 30 days even if it means paying them from his personal funds.
He has 45 days to meet those conditions. In exchange, the single count of election fraud, voting more than once, will be reduced to a misdemeanor. The deal, under which Riley avoids jail time, was reached in a plea bargain with Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher.
"Riley, 69, of Milwaukee, was running for the 7th District state Senate seat held by incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Plale of South Milwaukee when allegations arose that Riley voted twice in 2000, once in Cook County, Ill., and once in the Town of Oconomowoc, where he was living in 2000...
The allegations were raised by All Children Matter, a pro-school-choice group. It filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Board, claiming that Riley voted twice in the Nov. 7, 2000, presidential election.
Bucher began investigating the complaint in mid-August and filed a criminal charge on Aug. 31.
Gram accepted the plea agreement, saying the penalty was "substantial and severe" and the "toughest penalty isn't always throwing someone in jail and throwing the key away."
"I regret that a fellow lawyer got himself in this kind of a situation. Oh, we can say a lot about our political system and whatnot. Certainly, one vote here and one vote in Cook County is not going to do much to disturb the political process. But the fact that somebody does it is a serious problem," Gram said. "
But, it sounds like this DA was a highly partisan Republican who prosecuted Democrats but not Republicans.
"Loyal FightingBob.com readers might remember an article I wrote last May about a case Bucher brought against me as a candidate for the New Berlin School Board. According to St. Paul The Crusader, I received two checks for $100 and thereby violated my campaign pledge to not accept more than $100 from a single source. I did not solicit or cash the checks in question and actually returned both of them to the donor, but Bucher pressed on with his prosecution of me.
I eventually won in court and was found not guilty, but along the way Bucher kept information from me that he was legally required to provide, played games with court dates and deadlines, and sent Waukesha County Deputy Sheriff deputies to my door four times with subpoenas as an obvious means of harassment.
Bucher's conduct has been similarly "inexcusable" with other pro-education, non-Republican-aligned school board members and candidates who have had the misfortune of running for office in the jurisdiction of St. Paul The Crusader.
Meanwhile, St. Bucher The Benevolent decided not to bring charges against Menominee Falls' elected official Jefferson Davis over his alleged improper filing of campaign finance reports. Instead, Bucher recommend that Davis attend some workshops on campaign finance laws."
And that same DA announced he would file a prosecution against some Democrats just before an election, but then didn't follow through.
"Bucher is a Republican who lost the GOP attorney general primary in September to J.B. Van Hollen. Bucher disclosed his findings just four days before Tuesday's election between Doyle and Green, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Green Bay.
"This just reeks of partisanship," said Anson Kaye, a spokesman for Doyle's campaign. "The timing of this announcement drains it of any credibility."
Yes it was partisan and aimed at influencing the election. After the election the prosecution was dropped.
"The new Waukesha County district attorney says he will not charge Democratic members of the state Elections Board with violating the state open meetings law before a campaign finance ruling last year against Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green.
"I am not able to conclude that I could prove a violation of the open meetings law," Brad Schimel said in a letter to a state GOP leader.
The board voted 5-2 at a meeting last August to order Green, then a congressman from Green Bay, to divest $467,844 of the campaign funds that he had transferred from his congressional account to his gubernatorial account. The money came from political action committees not registered in Wisconsin.
All four Democratic members of the board voted for the order, as did the lone Libertarian member, while two Republicans voted against the order, a third GOP member abstained and the Supreme Court appointee was absent.
Schimel's predecessor, Republican Paul Bucher, said days before the November election that he had evidence that four board members had decided in advance to vote as a bloc, and that charges could be issued if someone would file a formal complaint. After the GOP filed a complaint, Bucher turned the case over to Schimel."
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=123727&ntpid=8
How to exist in the real discriminating world if you are a true leftist? Eschew discrimination to the point that everything is turned upside down: Corrupt language with Doublespeak and Political Correctness. Promote Racism through affirmative action. Shun science by worshipping the religion of Global Warming. And by all means, support felons as much as possible.
What's a double-voter hear or there in the backwards leftist world where Tookie Williams and Hugo Chavez are heroes?
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 30, 2007 09:08 PMSo what? Why is that a threat to democracy?
Partisan scare mongering.
Posted by: chew2 on March 30, 2007 09:16 PMHe only pointed to one case of double voting. That's all.
Posted by: chew2 on March 30, 2007 09:21 PM
Battle Over U.S. Attorneys Has Roots in '04 Election
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3287.html
"Behind the scenes, court records show, the RNC worked with state parties to send letters to newly registered voters in some states, including hotly contested Ohio. Letters returned as undeliverable were then used to create a list of voters' names to challenge at the polls on Election Day. In Wisconsin, Republicans conducted background checks on roughly 100,000 newly registered voters and trained more than 50,000 volunteers to monitor precincts or lodge challenges against voters.
At the Justice Department, Ashcroft instructed U.S. attorneys to meet with top election officials and make themselves available for fraud investigations on Election Day, if necessary.
On the election's eve, the legal battle between civil rights activists and the RNC was still raging inside a New Jersey federal courthouse, but the air was quickly going out of the effort. Media disclosures of the Ohio and Wisconsin projects had **upset and embarrassed local Republican leaders, who publicly urged an end to the program**.
Lawyers for both sides were stationed at voting precincts on Election Day, but **relatively few voter challenges were raised** amid the record number of ballots cast. Even so, e-mails released by Congress in recent weeks show that, within two months, the White House was debating whether to fire all or some of the U.S. attorneys. One reason: They didn't pursue voter fraud cases."
"The events surrounding the firing of the U.S. attorneys illustrate how deeply the Bush administration has laced political strategies with governing decisions. Rove, the president's political and policy adviser, represents the very embodiment of the Bush approach."
John McKay was a victim of that partisanship, and you republicans will remain a minority party because of that.
Posted by: chew2 on March 30, 2007 09:47 PMI believe there are two separate and distinct issues and one needs to be fleshed out a bit. The issues are:
1. Voter suppression, typically aimed at voters
of color and low-income voters.
2. Voting which may have issues of:
a. illegality
b. fraud
Both issues are the result of an inproper involvement in the voting process by parties, government officials, and interest groups.
First, as to voter suppression there have been instances reported in Florida, Missouri, and other states of phone calls informing potential voters that the election was on a different date, signs giving incorrect directions to polling places, and other issues with ballots. This is reprehensible and should be prosecuted. There is another sub issue of voter suppression that receives little attention. That is voter education and teaching a target population of voters how to properly excercise the franchise. This involves the heavy lifting of grassroots politics and is not quite as sexy for lawyers who often make careers with high profile law suits. It is not sexy for groups like ACORN who need donations and often rely on vote mining to get favored candidates into office. The thought that some person of color or low-income individual might excercise some independence of thought is not what is wanted, votes are.
2. The second issue that is causing consternation among partisans is the question of whether there was fraud in the 2004 election which resulted in a change in the outcome of the gubernatorial election here. I am not a partisan, I think dems are stuck on stupid and pubbies are stuck on dumb.
My own opinion, for what it is worth, is that the election stunk to high heaven. I try to stay away from partisan slamming of people. The question which many want addressed is: does it make a difference as to whether there were illegalities which could have resulted in a prosecution based upon documents released after the Chelan trial?
Personally, most people would be better served just getting on with their life or even getting a life. That probably won't happen soon. Is there a way to address the question without mudwrestling and the politics of blame?
a preponderance of REAL political testosterone vs. estrogen
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on March 31, 2007 08:10 AMWatch that estrogen thing, I know plenty of women that blog here that can kick some serious butt.
Posted by: WVH on March 31, 2007 08:16 AMlet me re-phrase--difference is demonstrating real ballz & leadership, not figurehead p.c. weenie politics.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on April 3, 2007 07:37 AM