DC Mayor Williams Accused of Using City Dollars to Help Write-In Campaign (DEMOCRAT RAT)

CapitolGrilling.com today accused District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams's administration of suspect use of taxpayer dollars to bolster the incumbent's write-in candidacy for mayor in the Democratic primary on September 10th.

"I've lived in Washington, DC for five years and have never received any material, by mail or otherwise except at the polling place on election day, that instructs the voter how to cast a ballot," said Guru, co-founder of CapitolGrilling.com. "Even more astounding was the section in this expensive direct mail piece instructing the voter how to cast a ballot for a write-in candidate."

The District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics mailed a 2002 Election Guide that arrived on August 12, 2002 in households with voters registered in DC. The official election mail piece informed voters how to use the enclosed change of address form; detailed offices to be on the primary and general election ballots; educated voters on the District's new voting system; informed the reader about special services available to voters; provided instructions on absentee voting; and warned voters of possible new polling locations due to redistricting.

"Mayor Williams's administration once again failed another test of due diligence, as the mailer was received on August 12th, which is the same day as the deadline for citizens to register to vote and make party affiliation changes on the voter roll," said Guru. "One understands that Mr. Williams is desperate to save his mayoral skin, but this type of blatant abuse of taxpayer dollars is outrageous."

"With the recent purge of Mr. Williams from the Democratic primary election ballot due to his failure to collect the prerequisite number of ballot petition signatures, it is disturbingly coincidental that the District of Columbia chose this election to inform voters on how to complete a write-in candidacy," said Guru. "CapitolGrilling challenges Mr. Williams' to release the costs of this mailer and the recipient households to explain why now, of all the elections, did this expensive mailer ever reach the mailbox in such a rushed fashion that it arrived too late for voters to meet the August 12th deadline for registration."

"We fully expect Mr. Williams to defend this mailer by claiming that it went to all households, regardless of party affiliation," said Guru. "Such a defense will only serve as further proof to CapitolGrilling that the mailer has the ulterior motive to help Mr. Williams' write-in candidacy and the mailing of the piece to non-Democratic households was done as a cover of this transparent abuse of taxpayer dollars," stated Guru.

I work in DC during the week so I end up listening to alot of local news.

Going into the election season Mayor Williams was considered a shoo-in with about 75% popularity.

He, as well as all prospective candidates, was required to get several thousand petition signatures to get on the ballot. Of course this should have been easy for someone with his popularity. But, his campaign staff was too lazy to actually go out and get the signatures. They forged most of the signatures. Did they do the smart thing and take names out of a phone book? NO, they used celebrity names such as Tom Cruise, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, etc. Not to mention that they didn't even make an attempt to create signatures that looked different, they used the same color ink and all the signatures were obviously made by the same person.

The election board bared Williams name from the ballot because of fraud. Willams wasn't the least bit worried after the decision, he shrugged and said he would win with a write in ballot.

The polls are showing that he will win on a write-in with his popularity virtually unchanged at 75%.

Like Mayor Berry before him, he could murder someone in broad daylight and it wouldn't make a dent in his reelection chances

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