FBI plants fake candidate in W.Va race

San Jose Mercury News & AP ^ | 12-03-05 | LAWRENCE MESSINA

[WestVirginiaRebel]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)-Thomas Esposito's campaign for the Legislature seemed to be following the usual pattern. The longtime Democratic mayor issued press releases, raised money and bought newspaper ads. Signs bearing his name popped up in yards around rural Logan County.

But less than a month before the May 2004 primary election, Esposito dropped out, saying he had to withdraw bcause of his ailing mother-in-law.

The real reason surfaced only later: The FBI had planted Esposito among the field of candidates to help find evidence of vote-buying in southern West Virginia.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

For a minute there, I thought that Robert Byrd had been exposed as a mole.

I like it here, but I swear to God, sometimes the jokes about my state just write themselves.

[stocksthatgoup]

Come to the Big Cities and learn what vote buying en masse is all about.

[Forte Runningrock]

There seems to be a unwillingness to mention the words corrupt DemoRATs in the article.

[dersepp]

In the SF Bay, you don't have to worry about having a life preserver on. If you ever fall off your fishing boat or a Red & White ferry, you can always just wait for a ballot box to float by and grab onto that.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Eh, you city slickers an' yer high falutin' fancy ways...

[Las Vegas Dave]

Notice that the sting didn't use a Republican?

Thanks for posting, the story is very interesting.

[manwiththehands]

This is only a microcosm of what has been going on nationwide for decades. Democrats have been stealing votes and voting for dead folk and buying votes with crack cocaine for years.

[coloradan]

"The longtime Democratic mayor issued press releases, ... "

What did the FBI do with the money he raised. (And, why did they think a newcomer to the slate would be rewarded with purchased votes?)

[eureka!]

re#7 Yep. Nice to see some investigatin' (and prosecutions) going on. Methinks that W has had the DOJ on this stuff since 2000. I hope so...

[Emmett McCarthy]

To be a good fake of this kind in West Virginia, he'd probably have to refer to his mother-in-law as "Aunt Lulu".

[jmaroneps37]

Besides a few of us who frequent FR, how many people in this country realize what a huge smash in the teeth for the kleagle this is? Anything that curbs voter fraud has GOT to hurt sheets!!!!!!! Hee hee hee!