Free Republic

In the threadbare border towns of South Texas, one of the country’s poorest regions, enterprising locals like Candelaria Espinoza have long been paid to round up votes for candidates on Election Day. There is even a name for these electoral soldiers of fortune: politiqueras. So when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign arrived in South Texas in February seeking an edge in its uphill battle against Senator Barack Obama, Ms. Espinoza was happy to oblige, for a price. The campaign paid her and seven other members of her family $100 to $200 each to knock on doors, deliver fliers and...

Fourteen months into a campaign that has the feel of a movement, Sen. Barack Obama has collided with the gritty political traditions of Philadelphia, where ward bosses love their candidates, but also expect them to pay up. The dispute centers on the dispensing of "street money," a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote. Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot...

The fate of $600-$1,200 rebate checks for more than 100 million Americans is in limbo after Senate Republicans blocked a bid by Democrats to add $44 billion in help for the elderly, disabled veterans, the unemployed and businesses to the House-passed economic aid package. GOP senators banded together Wednesday to thwart the $205 billion plan, leaving Democrats with a difficult choice either to quickly accept a House bill they have said is inadequate or risk being blamed for delaying a measure designed as a swift shot in the arm for the lagging economy. The tally was 58-41 to end debate...

In what may be the most important voting case since Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court in January will hear a challenge to Indiana’s 2006 law requiring a voter ID to vote. If the court rules against the law, 22 state voter ID laws that were designed to prevent voter fraud could be eliminated. Democrats and so-called voting rights groups such as ACORN, the ACLU and the League of Women Voters (all of whom are challenging the law) claim there has been little actual voter fraud, few federal prosecutions and convictions, and that the purpose of the Indiana law...

Unofficial 2005 election results for NJ Governor Follow the money. (Look at Essex.) NOTE: Newark, the 'drag and drop' capital of NJ, is in Essex County Corzine "walking around money" is virtually unlimited (source: Chris Matthews) Calculating a black man's worth to be 5/3 of a vote is no less racist, and arguably more so, than calculating his worth to be 3/5 of a white man; the latter is demeaning, but the former is dehumanizing. THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT? clinton legacy of lynching update

As the days dwindle down to a precious few leading up to November second, the big three branches of the Liberal election machine have kicked into high gear. Charges have been leveled by the political, entertainment and news divisions. Tales of galloping woe fill the crisp autumn air as accusations of repression, suppression and downright aggression emanate daily from the Left. Out on the hustings, at the obligatory Democratic pander-stop at a black church in Cleveland, John Kerry said, "We're seeing efforts by the Republicans, unfortunately, in various parts of the country to suppress votes and intimidate people, to do...

Nothing was done about all the election and campaign fraud in the 2000 election, so the same thing is starting all over again. The federation of 65 unions known as the AFL-CIO will again be a major player in the Congressional elections. They plan to spend $33 million this cycle. That's what gets reported, anyway. The unions always also kick in a few million dollars of "walking around" money to Democratic campaign workers that is not reported because most of it is illegal. The unions say they will focus on paid media, voter education and mobilizing the labor vote at...