August 15, 2006

Sullivan's Supposed Double Vote

The drama behind Jim Sullivan's voting record continues. Bill Christofferson writes the accusation of Sullivan voting twice in 1996 is a pack of lies:

The charge is totally bogus, and was dismissed by the district attorney's office in 2000, when Sullivan was running for Wauwatosa alderman. (He won.)

Someone named Michael Goggins filed the complaint then, attaching the same voter lists that Zurawski is now circulating, purporting to show Sullivan voted twice.

The district attorney's office investigated and wrote Goggins on March 28. 2000 to say the office was closing the investigation and taking no action.

Why? The Whitefish Bay voter history list was unreliable, Assistant DA Kurt Benkley said.

You see, Wauwatosa Ald. Jim Sullivan, the one running for the State Senate, is James Sullivan, Jr. His father, you won't be surprised to learn, is James Sullivan, Sr.

Therein the confusion, and the conclusion by the DA that the confusion "renders Whitefish Bay voter history records as to James Sullivan, Jr. and James Sullivan, Sr. unreliable and valueless. (My emphasis.)

Ah yes, E. Michael McCann's office said there was nothing there. Therefore there was nothing there. This is the same district attorney's office that plea bargains at the first sign of prosecutorial difficulty and wouldn't go after vote fraud in the 2004 election. Steve Biskupic's U.S. Attorney's office has been doing most of the hard work.

Jim McGuigan adds quotes from letters from E. Michael McCann's office. The most interesting being the one where Michael F. Hart wrote the District Attorney's office would legally defend Sullivan, Jr. if his opponents continued to use the voting accusation. Isn't that what Sullivan, Jr. should pay his lawyers to do? I think the District Attorney's office has better things to do (like lock up criminals) than be involved in political spats. [See update below.]

In Sullivan's case I can see where sloppy record keeping could be the source of the accusation. In the Whitefish Bay voter records it lists two James Sullivans living at 627 E. Carlisle Ave. One with a birthdate of 12.26.1967, the State Senate candidate, and one with a birthdate of 10.27.1936. The younger Sullivan is listed as voting in the general election on 11.05.1996. The older Sullivan is listed as voting in elections in 1998 and 1999. It's not outlandish to conceive Sullivan, Sr. going to vote in 1998 and giving his name to the poll worker only to have the wrong Sullivan marked off. What would be very interesting is if both Sullivans had voted.

To make things a little more interesting I received a forwarded e-mail from J.J. Blonien to Stan Zurawski, Sullivan, Jr.'s accuser. Blonien claims, "Jim Sullivan Sr. was not living in the home on Carlisle during November of 1996, and that candidate Sullivan was watching his parent’s home." Where was Sullivan, Sr.? How would Blonien know this? Who's going to find Jim Sullivan, Sr. and ask him where he was on the night of 11.05.1996?

I could care less about Tom Reynolds' political future. He's a strange man with strange views. I was all set to blast the hell out of him if he killed a school choice bill last March. I'm more interested is documenting voter fraud so laws can be changed to reduce it, and those who commit it are punished.

P.S. Christofferson and McGuigan don't understand the meaning of "lie." Neither man has any evidence Owen Robinson knew he was passing on a falsehood. If the accusation isn't true the worst that can be said is Owen didn't look into the story enough and ran too soon with it. McGuigan wanted to do a little smearing of his own, and decided to bash "right wing bloggers" plural. If he wanted to really do that he should have linked to more than one right wing weblog following the story.

UPDATE: Jay Bullock, A.K.A. Folkbum, corrects me. I incorrectly claimed Michael F. Hart was a part of E. Michael McCann's District Attorney's office. He's James Sullivan, Jr.'s lawyer. So it would make sense for him to legally defend Sullivan, Jr. against false accusations.

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