DA asked to investigate bingo party
By STEVEN WALTERS - MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
Oct. 23, 2002
The Kenosha County district attorney's office will be asked to look into a bingo party at a home for the mentally disabled, where Doyle campaign workers handed out sodas, quarters and kringle before urging residents to vote by absentee ballot, a television station reported Tuesday.
WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) said the event took place last week at the Dayton Residential Care Facility in Kenosha. The city clerk said 33 absentee ballots were sent to the facility.
Parts of the bingo session were videotaped by WTMJ, which showed the tape to the state Elections Board Executive Director Kevin Kennedy. He told the station that the district attorney's office would be informed of the newscast to determine if any election laws were broken.
Doyle campaign director Bill Christofferson told the Journal Sentinel neither he or Doyle was aware of the event. He said two people identified by WTMJ as campaign workers are not on the campaign's payroll.
Below:
Transcript from Oct. 22, 2002 Milwaukee WTMJ Channel 4 - 10:00 Newscast
“There are questions tonight about campaign tactics in the Wisconsin’s Governor’s race.”
Mike :
“Investigation 4 recently dropped by a Jim Doyle campaign event. There we saw a Doyle campaign worker giving out cans of soda, snacks and small amounts of money to mentally ill voters right before they were given the chance to vote by absentee ballot.”
“Now as our Scott Friedman reports the State Elections Board is asking the Kenosha County District Attorney to look into the actions we caught on tape.”
Scott Friedman:
“An afternoon game of bingo at a Kenosha Care Facility for the mentally ill. Today’s bingo is sponsored by the Jim Doyle campaign. The residents win cans of soda, and they pocket quarters handed out by a Doyle campaign worker. They line up to dine on Danish and coffee and when the party’s over the residents are told they can vote right now by absentee ballot upstairs in another room. “
Unidentified worker :
“There still upstairs, if you guys wanted to vote.”
Jay Heck (Common Cause):
“I mean this is the kind of thing I would expect to see, you know, done in Chicago or New Jersey. It’s troubling.”
Scott Friedman :
“Jay Heck runs the nonpartisan political watchdog group common cause. He says their videotape raises concerns because it appears the party was timed to take place right before the residents had a chance to vote.”
Jay Heck:
“Ahhh…they are being manipulated to some degree and there’s a sense that they ought to be beholden to the people who put on the presentation.”
Scott Friedman:
“Heck says he’s even more troubled by what happened before the party. We saw Angela Arrington (sp), Jim Doyle’s Kenosha County campaign coordinator. She told us she was planning to speak to the residents.”
Angela Arrington:
“Really all I was going to do was just come here to speak a little bit about the absentee balloting and things like that.”
Scott Friedman:
“A flier advertising the event also told residents the bingo party would give them a chance to:”
Flier:
“Ask questions to see if Doyle is the candidate you would or would not want as Governor.”
[Image of Flier]
A quick reminder that people from Jim Doyle’s campaign will be here on Monday to sponsor a bingo at 3:30 in the dining room. This is your chance to ask questions to see if he is the candidate you would or would not want in office for Governor.
Scott Friedman:
“But when Doyle’s Kenosha County campaign coordinator heard we wanted to videotape the event she headed for the door and cancelled her presentation. “
Angela Arrington:
“I don’t know about necessarily being on camera and all that kind of stuff with my position that’s all. So that’s why.”
Jay Heck:
“Why when she discovered that there were television cameras there did she decide that this was now not a good thing to do.”
Scott Friedman:
“When Arrington left Doyle campaign worker Frank Santapaolo took over. He didn’t talk politics but told us the residents still got the message: They know who sponsored the event today?”
Frank Santapaolo:
“I think they do, yes. They know who sponsored it.”
Scott Friedman:
“We showed our tape to the State Elections Board. They believe the Kenosha County District Attorney should look into the bingo party to see if any election laws were broken. “
Kevin Kennedy (State Elections Board)
“Questions about election bribery are going to be handled by the appropriate District Attorney. Ummm, you know we will let the Kenosha District Attorney know about the newscast.”
Scott Friedman:
“So what does the law say about this? Well in Wisconsin its illegal to give someone anything of value in order to induce them to vote. The laws defines anything of value as anything worth more than a dollar.
Now in this case many of the residents won $.75 in quarters and a can of soda worth about $.30 plus some pastries.[Images of coins, a can, and pastry] So the total comes out right around a dollar or a little more than that. Now our tape has also prompted the elections board to tell the Kenosha City Clerks office to keep a closer eye on voting at that care home. In the future the board has asked that special election deputies be there to monitor the voting. And in this case Mike and Susan it would be a deputy from each of the political parties just to make sure that nothing unusual is going on.”
Mike:
“Has the Doyle campaign had any reaction to this Scott?”
Scott Friedman:
“Well we did hear from them briefly tonight. Doyle’s press staff says they are looking into the issue but so far no real response to the issues.”