Bush's state headquarters for re-election burglarized

The Washington state headquarters for the president's re-election campaign was broken into last night, and police are investigating the theft of three computers from the Bellevue office. Missing are the computers used by the campaign's executive director, the head of the get-out-the-vote effort and one that had been set for delivery to the campaign's Southwest Washington field director, said Jon Seaton, executive director of the state's George W. Bush campaign.

Seaton said data on the computers was backed up and available elsewhere. But, he said, the loss creates a potential security breach about the campaign's so-called 72-hour plan, the Bush get-out-the-vote effort.

"Obviously there's some stuff there we wouldn't want our opposition getting their hands on," Seaton said.

The campaign has spoken about the importance of the 72-hour plan in swing states across the country. Bush campaign officials say it could make the difference in a close election if Republicans are able to make sure their voters get to a polling place on election day and don't sit home as many did four years ago.

Seaton was the first one in the office this morning. He did not notice the break-in until he walked into his office and saw a rock and broken glass on the floor.

Seaton said this morning that the campaign staff was still checking to see if anything else had been stolen.

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance called it a "Watergate-style break in" and said he suspects Democrats are behind it.

"If you're just some burglar looking for computers to sell to buy drugs you take every laptop in the office maybe," he said. "But they knew exactly whose computers to get. They got the executive director's computer and the get-out-the-vote director's computer."

State Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said Democrats had nothing to do with the break-in.

"There was nothing for us to gain by stealing those computers. Their secret plan isn't so secret and the fact is we're winning by a lot right now."

Vance said the break in follows reports of vandalized Bush campaign signs and what he said were telephone calls to voters alleging Bush would reinstate a military draft if re-elected.

"To me there is some scary stuff going on from liberal radicals whose Bush hatred is out of control," Vance said.

3 computers stolen from Bush's Bellevue campaign office

By David Postman and Ashley Bach
Seattle Times staff reporters

BELLEVUE — Three computers loaded with confidential campaign plans were reported stolen early yesterday in a burglary at President Bush's Washington state campaign headquarters.

Someone threw a rock through a window of the campaign's office in a suburban business park, taking laptops belonging to key campaign workers from the desk of the Bush campaign's state director, Bellevue police and Republican Party officials said.

The Bush campaign and local Republican officials say they're convinced the break-in was politically motivated. They say it appeared to be a targeted burglary and was suspiciously similar to a break-in four years ago at Bush's Bellevue offices.

"Whoever did this was clearly looking for a body of information," said local Bush campaign spokeswoman Leah Yoon.

Police said their investigation was still in the early stages. But so far, said department spokeswoman Jessamyn Poling, "there's no indication that it was politically motivated."

State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance called it a "Watergate-style break in," and said he suspects Democrats are behind it.

"If you're just some burglar looking for computers to sell to buy drugs, you take every laptop in the office, maybe," Vance said. "But they knew exactly whose computers to get."

He said Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt should issue a public call for the computers' return.

Berendt laughed off Vance's suspicions.

"I think Chris should double-check with the national Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee to make sure they didn't move their computers out of the state in the middle of the night to ... one of those states where they're fighting a little more vigorously."

Missing are computers used by Jon Seaton, executive director of the state's Bush campaign, and the state leader of the GOP's get-out-the-vote effort. A third computer was designated for the campaign's Southwest Washington field director.

Seaton said data on the computers were backed up and available elsewhere. But, he said, the loss creates a potential security breach.

"Obviously there's some stuff there we wouldn't want our opposition getting their hands on," Seaton said.

The campaign has spoken about the importance of its voter-identification and get-out-the-vote program, known as its 72-hour plan for the final three-day push to Election Day.

Bush campaign officials say it could make the difference in a close election if Republicans are able to make sure their voters get to a polling place on Election Day and don't sit home as many did four years ago.

The break-in happened sometime between 2 and 8 a.m., said Bellevue police spokeswoman Poling. A side window of the office on 112th Avenue Northeast was smashed.

"They may have intended on stealing one or two items or they may have intended on stealing everything in there and they were scared away before they could finish the job," Poling said.

She said police had no other reports of commercial-building burglaries last night, though she said break-ins are not uncommon in the downtown business area.

Four years ago, two pieces of office equipment were taken from Bush headquarters in the 700 block of 112th Avenue Northeast, a couple of blocks away from the campaign's current office, Poling said. No suspects were found. Vance said the computer of that year's campaign director was stolen.

This year's headquarters is a small, ground-level office in the Bellewood Office Park, a collection of several buildings on a leafy stretch of 112th Avenue.

Part of Bush headquarters sits along the street, and the broken window could be seen clearly from the sidewalk about 70 feet away.

The only identification is a small, gold-colored sign on an outer door that reads "Bush-Cheney" in plain letters. The low-profile location helps the campaign focus on its work without worrying about protesters or hecklers, Yoon said.

Vance said the break-in follows reports of vandalized Bush campaign signs and what he said were telephone calls to voters alleging Bush would reinstate a military draft if re-elected.

"To me there is some scary stuff going on from liberal radicals whose Bush hatred is out of control," Vance said.

Vance conceded he has no evidence of Democratic involvement in the break-in except the suspicious circumstances.

"I'm saying anything is possible," he said. "It could be something that is sanctioned by the Kerry campaign or some overzealous supporters acting on their own."

The Kerry campaign did not have a comment on Vance's comments.

Local Kerry spokesman JB Tengco said he felt bad about the burglary. "It's a sad fact for any group that has to go through that, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone," he said.

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

Saturday, October 2, 2004

Burglars hit Republicans' office

Laptops stolen from Bush-Cheney state headquarters in Bellevue

By NEIL MODIE

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Thirty years after the Watergate burglary of Democratic Party headquarters toppled Richard Nixon from the presidency, Washington state Republicans seized an opportunity to get even yesterday, albeit on a smaller scale.

Burglars broke into state Bush-Cheney '04 headquarters in Bellevue early yesterday and stole three laptop computers containing campaign plans. State Republican Chairman Chris Vance quickly issued a statement declaring that it "looks like one of several deliberate attempts to disrupt the re-election campaign."

After Bellevue police investigated, however, police spokeswoman Jessamyn Poling said, "There was no indication at the scene that this burglary was politically motivated."

But Vance tied the burglary to what he said were other acts against the GOP presidential campaign, including vandalized yard signs and bumper stickers and what he called untruthful phone calls to Bush backers, asking "if they would still support the president if they knew he planned on restarting the draft."

Bush has denied intending to do so.

Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue, state chairwoman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, also suggested a political break-in, saying in a statement, "Although I am hopeful (the burglary) was not a politically motivated event, that type of crime would be unprecedented in Washington state politics and certainly has no place in our state."

State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt responded with tongue in cheek: "I think Chris is mistaken. I think the Republican National Committee just packed up and left the state in the middle of the night and took all their equipment with them. They seem to have given up on having any chance of carrying this state."

But Berendt said he was irritated that Vance was "making all of these false claims against the Democratic Party ... I feel bad that somebody broke into their headquarters, but there is no indication that any Democrat did this. It's outrageous that (Vance) would make such flippant, baseless charges."

State Bush-Cheney campaign spokeswoman Leah Yoon said someone threw a rock through the office window of campaign Executive Director Jon Seaton sometime between 2 and 8 a.m. yesterday.

The laptops of Seaton and Chris Gulugian Tyler, the state get-out-the-vote director, and a laptop that was to go to a field staff member were taken.

"All they stole were the computers of the top staff where the campaign plans would be," Vance said. "They didn't take anything else." The ground-floor headquarters are in an office park northeast of downtown Bellevue, "full of hundreds of offices, but this was the only one broken into," he said.

Yoon, however, said the campaign office is "a little bit out of the way," not visible from the street, and has no outside sign identifying it as Bush-Cheney headquarters.

"It seems somebody did this for a political reason," Vance insisted. Rather than a Democratic Party operative, "I think it's more likely that it's just some overzealous Democrat who thinks they're doing the Kerry campaign a favor. But I wouldn't put it past anyone."

Vance said "the exact same thing happened in 2000" when a burglar stole the computer of the state Bush-Cheney campaign director.

Berendt said the state Democratic Party had similar problems before moving its headquarters out of the Smith Tower in downtown Seattle: "People would walk in, in broad daylight, and take laptop computers, just steal them."

Vance called on his Democratic counterpart to "stop the lying phone calls (about Bush's alleged draft plans) and two, issue a public statement telling your supporters to knock off" vandalism and other acts.

"It's laughable that Vance is deriving political hay out of this," Berendt replied.

The Democratic leader suggested that Vance was "just trying to change the subject because ... their candidate for president was trounced in the debate" against Democratic nominee John Kerry Thursday night.

P-I reporter Neil Modie can be reached at 206-448-8321 or neilmodie@seattlepi.com

Here it is:
"To win the primary, the newcomer overcame the election eve arrest of his brother, Cameron, and campaign field director Thomas J. Vallely, both then 22, in the basement of a Lowell building that housed the headquarters of Kerry and another Democratic contender, state Representative Anthony R. DiFruscia of Lawrence.

It was almost 2 a.m. - 30 hours before the polls opened - when the two were arrested on charges of breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny."

That day's Sun blared a memorable, double-deck headline: "Kerry brother arrested in Lowell `Watergate."' DiFruscia, getting some extra ink in the campaign's waning hours, had drawn the parallel to the break-in at Democratic headquarters in Washington three months earlier.

The Kerry camp declared it a setup, saying that the two responded to an anonymous phone call, minutes earlier, threatening to cut the campaign's 36 phone lines on the day before its get-out-the-vote effort. Lowell Police arrested the pair in an area near the trunk line for all of the building's phones.

To this day Kerry becomes animated talking about the episode, convinced it was part of a conspiracy against his insurgency. He said he does not know who was involved. He dismissed as ridiculous the charge that DiFruscia was a target. "He didn't figure in the race," said Kerry.

But some of Kerry's claims in the Lowell break-in are wildly at odds with the facts. Kerry's brother today declines to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the arrests and the charges, which were dropped a year later. "It was an impulsive, rash thing that we did and that John Kerry ended up having to deal with," said Cam Kerry, now a partner at the Boston law firm of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo. "That's all we're going to say on that one."

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061803.shtml

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