CHEATER
Posted on 07/28/2002 12:52:19 PM PDT by Dog Gone
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A state senator running for governor submitted nomination papers with at least 231 falsified signatures with nonexistent or invalid addresses, a newspaper's review of the papers found. One person listed as signing has been dead for three years.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review found pervasive problems among the signatures Milwaukee Democrat Gary George submitted, including 82 people listed who say they did not sign their names.
The 231 signatures, which is in addition to the 180 signatures already invalidated by the State Elections Board, would leave George 39 short of the 2,000 needed signatures to stay on the Sept. 10 primary ballot.
Elections Board rules require that illegible or invalid addresses be excluded when a candidate's total is counted.
George's spokesman Dave Begel would not comment Sunday and said George had no comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
Prosecutors and the Elections Board were already investigating the nomination papers after a college student filed a complaint alleging George included invalid signatures.
After a July 18 hearing, the board opted to allow George to stay on the board. They are planning a meeting Wednesday to reconsider the decision, executive director Kevin Kennedy said. The board must make a decision by Aug. 11.
The student who filed the complaint was assisted by Joel Gratz, a campaign volunteer for Rep. Tom Barrett, who is challenging George in the Democratic primary for governor. Barrett has denied any involvement in challenging George's petitions.
Falsifying nomination papers or certifying them without personally obtaining the signatures is a felony in Wisconsin.
And Dave Begel used to be a sports writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One of the Packers coaches banned him after he stood on a car to look into the closed practice field, then published the results of his observations.
| Elections Board rules require that illegible or invalid addresses be excluded when a candidate's total is counted.
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BTW, let's not forget the Friendly Sons of Guadalajara, who are being illegally registered in droves by the Demos, in every state in the Union.
I hope you guys put someone in jail for this, even it it's not him personally.
State Sen. Gary George's nomination papers for governor contain at least 231 falsified signatures and non-existent or invalid addresses, a number that would leave him short of the signatures needed to be placed on the ballot, a Journal Sentinel investigation has found.
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And the total does not even include dozens of illegible signatures and addresses on the petitions that are impossible to verify. Nor does it include 180 signatures already invalidated by the state Elections Board because of incomplete information.
Under Elections Board rules, illegible or invalid addresses are supposed to rule out counting signatures toward a candidate's total. Further, only residential addresses must be used - unless a signer is homeless.
If the Elections Board were to invalidate the questionable signatures and addresses uncovered by the Journal Sentinel, it would leave George with 1,961 valid signatures. He needs 2,000 to get on the Sept. 10 primary ballot.
The Elections Board has tentatively scheduled a meeting for Wednesday in Milwaukee to reconsider whether to keep George on the ballot, said board Executive Director Kevin Kennedy. The board must make a decision by Aug. 11.
"I'm really appalled," said Steven P. Ponto, board chairman, after being told of the newspaper's findings. "Signing a nomination paper is a serious business, and it has to be done according to the law. We really need to maintain the integrity of the process."
Through a spokesman, George would not comment on the newspaper's findings.
Three district attorneys and Elections Board staffers are conducting their own investigations into George's nomination papers.
The board requested the prosecutorial review after allowing George to stay on the ballot following a July 18 hearing into a complaint filed by a Madison college student. That student, Daniel McMurray, was assisted by Joel Gratz, who is a former aide to state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala and a campaign volunteer for U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, who is challenging George in the Democratic primary for governor. Barrett has denied any involvement in challenging George's petitions; Chvala has not commented.
George submitted 2,372 signatures to the Elections Board, and the board accepted 2,192 of them as valid, which means George is hanging onto a slim margin of 192 signatures.
"The magic number is 193," said Kennedy.
The prosecutors reported back last week that they found troubling inconsistencies, prompting them to launch criminal investigations. They forwarded problematic cases to the Elections Board but have not publicly disclosed the number of invalid signatures or addresses they found. Two of the prosecutors said they had found no evidence thus far of any complicity or knowledge by George.
Although the prosecutors would not reveal overall numbers, the La Crosse County district attorney said almost all the 70 petitions circulated in that county had phony addresses or names on them. Prosecutors in Milwaukee and Dane counties are examining the petitions as well.
Many people incorrectly listed as signing George's petitions were upset when contacted by the Journal Sentinel.
"It leaves me a little concerned that someone is using my identity," said Susan Taylor of New Berlin. "No, I did not personally sign any petitions for Gary George. That definitely was not me. This really concerns me."
She has no connection to George; in fact, she tends to vote for Republicans, she said.
Despite the potentially serious consequences for the George campaign, some of the findings bordered on whimsical.
The address provided for two Hmong signers is George's Milwaukee law office. And Chad Taylor, chief legal counsel for McCallum, was less than happy about his name appearing on the list. He said he never signed.
Overall, the newspaper's investigation found:
The non-signers fell into four groups: former campaign donators or supporters of George; members of the Hmong community who had attended earlier George events; people active in politics for other candidates and parties; and those who did not have the foggiest idea how their names were obtained.
For example, Milwaukee attorney Emanuel Rotter's home address is alongside the signature of a Hmong man. "Never heard of him, and he doesn't live in my house," said Rotter.
Not included in the tally of 231 bad signatures or addresses are at least 75 instances in which neither the signature nor the address was legible and could not be verified for accuracy.
Page after page, the nomination papers strain credulity. What appears to be the same looping and scrawled writing appears for line after line.
The newspaper did not find problems with all nomination paper circulators. Rather, a pattern of problems emerged within petitions circulated by Locha Thao, a Hmong man who is a paid campaign staffer for George, and Dave Begel, George's campaign manager who also is member of George's legislative staff. Many people who denied signing petitions certified by Begel and Thao have been contacted by the district attorneys' offices, the Journal Sentinel found.
Begel declined to comment when told about the newspaper's findings Friday. Thao last week acknowledged that he did not personally witness the petitions being signed, although circulators are required by law to do so.
The newspaper found numerous Hmong signatures that appeared fraudulent. For example, all of the non-citizens listed on the petitions were Hmong.
Ya M. Yang, a councilman and county supervisor in Wausau, was outraged to learn that his name appeared on the papers, along with the address of the community group where he works.
"I wonder which individual put my name on it," Yang said, denying that he signed the page. "I am not going to sit back and let these people abuse the system."
He said anyone who falsified signatures "took advantage of our community. Our people are not that stupid."
Many Hmong contacted were at least familiar with George's name; the senator has aggressively sought the Hmong vote in the governor's race. Only Attorney General Jim Doyle, another contender for the Democratic nomination, has done as much outreach with that community, according to Hmong leaders.
Bee Vang, a case worker at the Milwaukee Christian Center, said: "I do support him, but I didn't sign any paper. I met him the last time sometime in March. I looked at the sheet, and it's not my signature. That's really strange. I don't sign like that. It bothers me because we want things to be the truth."
Thao said he certified nomination papers containing signatures he had not actually collected. He said that he had distributed some of the papers to community groups and churches, and that he told an investigator with the Dane County district attorney's office the same thing.
Falsifying nomination papers or certifying them without personally obtaining the signatures is a felony in Wisconsin. And, as a general rule, if people certify nomination papers they did not actually circulate, none of the signatures on those pages counts, Kennedy said. The 40 to 50 pages Thao certified - representing more than 400 signatures - will have to be reviewed one by one, Kennedy said. Thao did not tell the newspaper how many of the pages he did not personally circulate.
This is Thao's first experience in Wisconsin politics. He moved to Madison last year from Fresno, Calif., to work on George's campaign. Thao said he had organized fund-raisers for Colin Powell when Powell was considering a presidential bid. Thao said he met George in Washington, D.C., and was invited to Wisconsin to work full time raising money for George. Thao was paid more than $19,000 in the first half of this year, according to George's most recent campaign finance reports.
As a member of the Madison Park Board, Thao also was behind a proposal early this year to name a park in Madison after prominent Hmong general Vang Pao.
Many Hmong people listed as signing but who say they did not had attended a fund-raiser for George held in Milwaukee by a fledgling Hmong political group or a rally in support of the park.
Some of the purported Hmong signers, who do not speak much English, expressed confusion over why their names appeared; a few even seemed fearful.
"No, I did not sign it. Who put my name there?" asked Cher Pao Xiong of Madison.
Tang Yang translated for his mother and stepfather, Pang Vang and Koua Yang of Milwaukee. Koua Yang is not a citizen.
"They don't know who is putting their name down," he said after asking them directly. "I think somebody just puts their name down on this stuff. They didn't know who was doing it; they didn't sign it."
Ge Xiong, executive director of the Hmong Educational Advancement Association in Milwaukee, said he was concerned about the apparently false signatures because "being involved in the political process is very new to the Hmong community. . . . Very few candidates have come out to meet with the Hmong like Gary George and Jim Doyle have done. They do take that as a gesture of understanding and good will."
His wife is listed as signing the petition; she said she didn't.
At the fund-raiser that many of the non-signers attended, the roughly 100 Hmong who showed up filled out donation forms for George, said Amoun Sayaovong, board member and secretary of the United Hmong Coalition, the non-partisan group that organized the event.
Sayaovong said the list was forwarded to George's campaign. "That was for our records, partially, to keep track of them. Part of it was just so the George campaign would know who contributed to that campaign," he said.
The fund-raising list included Hmong who were not citizens, he said, because the group was tracking contributors, not voters.
Some other examples of what the newspaper found:
He died three years ago.
Lois Reideman said she and her husband weren't active in politics. She has no idea how his name ended up on the page.
Schreiber said she would have signed George's nomination papers - had she been asked.
Richard Lee, who lives at 314 Sand Lake Road in Onalaska, said he did not sign the petition.
In numerous other instances, the first and last names of people were interchanged.
"We've lived here for 38 years, the same address," said Lee's wife, Trudy. "We never, ever would have put Sandy Lake Road."
"I think it's fraud," Jaszewski said. "Just like in Chicago, when they have all the dead people from the cemetery voting. That's terrible."
Contributing to this report were Gina Barton, Don Behm, Dan Benson, Dennis Chaptman, Jeff Cole, Charlie Corr, Jesse Garza, Jessica Hansen, Tom Held, Amy Hetzner, Marcia Jergensen, Mike Johnson, Richard P. Jones, Mike Nichols, Vikki Ortiz, Georgia Pabst, Dan Polley, Christina Relacion, Amy Rinard, Tania RuizdeLuzuriaga, Steve Schultze, Dave Sheeley, Linda Spice, Amelia Styer, Leah Thorsen, Jennie Tunkieicz, Leita Walker, Nathan Wallin, Steven Walters and Molly Williamson, all of the Journal Sentinel staff; and correspondent Kevin Murphy in Madison.
Yes and no. He has run for governor before with little success. However, he is a powerful state senator due to the fact that his constituency is solid--the white Dems couldn't replace him--and the fact that the Dems hold a 1 seat majority in the Wisconsin senate. He has parlayed that into substantial authority in state budgetary affairs. The rumor locally is that the real force behind the exposure of the signature fraud is Chuck Chavla, the Democratic leader of the state senate. As far as the primary is concerned, George probably is the biggest threat to Tom Barrett. Barrett is a congressman from Milwaukee whose district disappeared in the last census/redistricting. Barrett stands to win most of the Milwaukee Dem vote against Kathleen Falk (Dane County [Madison] Executive) and Jim Doyle (Wis. Attorney General) because these two lefties have their power base in Madison. If George took the black vote (overwhelmingly in Milwaukee County) that cuts directly into Barrett's home base.
Were I him, I'd play the race card right now. He should scream that they are making an issue out of the false signatures only because he is black!!
Still involved only 3 years after death? Not even close to a record!! In St. Louis, they got active party member voters who have been dead for 20 years. It is OK, though, because they had been prevented from voting for many years and there is a very honest medium who is able to contact the other side to get their current preferences.
The really tough decision that democrats always have to face in a fraudulant voting issue is who gets the fee. Where a Mexican national votes for a democrat, there is no question he gets the fee no matter how many times he votes or petitions he signs. But, with a dead voter there are always disputes.
The fraud is being investigated around the state; the state's attorney in Milwaukee is a "see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil" Democrat. Odds are low anything will be done. However, if the Republicans in the state legislature develop some cajones, they will reintroduce a bill calling for a voter ID. This idea was passed in the assembly after the vote fraud in 2000, but defeated in the Dem controlled senate.
Conservatives give mixed reviews to McCallum. And Tommy Thompson's brother, Ed, is running for governor on the Libertarian ticket. My guess is that faced with a structural budget deficit in the next few years, and with taxes already about the highest in the country, most will come around to backing McCallum this fall, out of sheer self-preservation.
I've always lived in states where the primaries are held in the spring. Your election, like Florida's, comes awfully close to the general election.
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Gary George Nomination
It leaves me a little concerned that someone is using my identity. No, I did not personally sign any petitions for Gary George. That definitely was not me. This really concerns me. 
State Elections Board:
DAs launching criminal probes into signatures (7/25/02)