Sometimes Cheap Shots are Funny
Heh.
The half dozen members who comprise the Waukesha County Democratic Party issued a release regarding Scott Newcomer's carpetbagging. While it ignores a dubious letter Newcomer received from the Elections Board staff saying his actions complied with state law, it is still funny.
Newcomer, a candidate in the January 10th special election for the 33rd State Assembly District in western Waukesha County, voted from a vacant lot in the city of Delafield in the primary held last month. Newcomer was voter number 70 at his city of Delafield polling place voting from an address listed as 1829 Nagawicka Road. That address is a vacant lot with nothing on it but a backhoe.
The above statement is true, by the way.
Rick Congdon, chair of the Democratic Party of Waukesha County and local attorney, has demanded that Waukesha District Attorney Paul Bucher investigate the incident to determine if Newcomer engaged in felony voter fraud when he cast his vote from a vacant lot. Because a political consultant named R.J. Johnson is advising both Bucher and candidate Newcomer, Congdon asked Bucher to name a special prosecutor to look into the matter to insure an objective investigation.
Um, the call for a special prosecuter because of RJ is a bit much....
"The statutes are clear that you can only vote where you live," said Congdon a Waukesha attorney. "Unless Scott Newcomer was living in the cab of the backhoe on his vacant lot, he could not legally have a cast a vote from that address. After all the investigations into voter fraud in Wisconsin, it would be deeply troubling if a candidate for the state assembly committed voter fraud himself."
Congdon asked Bucher and a special prosecutor to move quickly on the matter so that appropriate action can be taken before the special election scheduled for next Tuesday. "Only a court of law can make a judgment as to the extent Newcomer has violated state election laws," he said.
Charges of felony vote fraud should not be thrown out so causually. But this cheap shot is damn funny nonetheless. Now, as someone who has challenged the Elecitons Board's staff attorney's reccomendation and won, I know first hand that his word does not have the power of case law, much less an Elections Board ruling. But you can't really ignore it. Unless challenged before the full board, his views do have some wieght.
Clearly, Newcomer is going to win this seat. But the full Board should have ruled on this matter.
Finally, Scott Newcomer opened himself to such criticism by actually using a vacant lot as his primary voting address.
Much like Mike Flanigan's apparently less than sober appearance on Packers Blitz(ed) on Sunday night, I got a kick out of this...
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and sometimes they're not -
from the 8/10/05 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
At the news conference outside a house in the 1600 block of N. Astor St., state GOP chairman Rick Graber was joined by state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) and Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), sponsors of the photo ID bill .
While the party did not release names or addresses, the city lists three voters at the house where the news conference took place: Stuart and Gayle Schenk and their son Joseph, who moved to Chicago last August.
Both Stuart and Gayle Schenk said Joseph did not vote in Milwaukee or request an absentee ballot here. Gayle Schenk said her son is in Chicago studying to join the Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic Church.
"It's a good thing I wasn't home," Stuart Schenk said when he learned of the news conference. "It's amazing how much nerve these people have."
Agreed. When going out with something like that, you should always wear belts and suspenders. That blunder would have made my top 30 list, for sure.
Ya know, if Newcomer spent a little less money on the campaign and a little more money on construction he wouldn't have to worry about election complaints.
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