The state treasurer campaign of Democrat Ben Westlund, hit last week by a Republican revival of an old “sex scandal,” has struck back with charges that one of rival Allen Alley’s top campaign aides was involved in shady practices four years ago.
“They say you can tell a lot about a person by who they choose to surround themselves with,” says an anti-Alley website. “Allen Alley has chosen Bush Administration crony Doug Badger as a key part of his campaign circle. Badger held was Executive Director for Bush’s 2004 election team in Oregon.
“As part of the Bush team, Badger may have been a key participant in the campaign’s efforts at vote caging, an illegal practice of trying to strip people from the voter roles.”
The way “vote caging” works, according to the site, is that a campaign sends registered mail marked “do not forward” and “return to sender” to homes of registered voters, “often those of men and women serving in the military overseas.” When the recipients don’t sign for the letters they come back to the sender, who uses them to compile a list of registered voters to challenge at the polls.
According to a May 2007 story in Slate, the on-line magazine, “Vote caging is an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren’t living at (because they are, say, at college or at war). The Republican National Committee reportedly stopped the practice following a consent decree in a 1986 case.”
The anti-Alley site links to a report on the progressive blog Daily Kos connecting Badger to “caging” efforts on behalf of the Bush campaign in 2004.
Interesting stuff, but The Eye doubts it will get as much traction with the media or voters as the “sex scandal.” There’s nothing like a nice, uncomplicated grope story to engage the public interest.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.
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Interesting choice of words tying the vile hate blog The Daily Kos, to the word progressive. Progressive brings to mind the root word progress. The only progress the Daily Kos is making, is down the road to hell.
If a Republican had an old sex scandal to bring back, The Source would put out a special edition with 30 pages devoted entirely to it. Please stop pretending you are even aware of what the term “high road” means.
“If a Republican had an old sex scandal to bring back …”
Actually we wouldn’t have to go back very far. Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Ted Haggard … and then there’s Oregon’s own Mike Erickson, one of those “family values” Republicans who knocked up his girlfriend and got her an abortion.
Are you really SURE you want to delve into this, Jerard?
As usual, HBM misses the point. The point was not about whether there are any Republicans to write sex scandals about, it is about calling the vile Daily Kos progressive and it’s about this publications 50 to 1 left wing bias. After all, HBM, it was you that boasted this rag gave the boot to 50 Republicans to every 1 Democrat. This 50 to 1 bias is what has so many CHL holders ‘up in arms’ against your rag’s left wing bias that clearly favors wiping it’s butt with the Second Amendment.
Wake up, dude. Your never responding directly, always sliding off the subject, in a piss poor lame attempt to try to re-frame the issue to your liking is getting a little tiresome. Your slippery whirl, dodge and spin, avoid the issue antics doesn’t fool anyone. You are either doing it on purpose or it’s beyond your capacity. If you lack the capacity to deal head on with issues just as they present themselves, why don’t you retire?
Or, why don’t you amaze us all and try dealing honestly and straight ahead with reality for once? You might grow to like it.
“As usual, HBM misses the point. The point was not about whether there are any Republicans to write sex scandals about …”
Then why did YOU write: “If a Republican had an old sex scandal to bring back, The Source would put out a special edition with 30 pages devoted entirely to it.”
You brought the subject up, dude, and when I pointed out there is a plentiful supply of Republicans with sex scandals (most of them far worse than Westlund’s) you did your cute little buck-and-wing and tried to pretend “the point” was something else.
This is the last comment I am going to write in response to ANYTHING you or any of the other right-wing flamers put up here. You’re not interested in rational, civil debate; you only want to flaunt your vocabulary and vent your rage at the world. And I’m not going to oblige you by providing a target.
HBM: Thanks for correctly identifying, and no longer making, yourself available as a target. Presumably, you are aware that this will require total silence, no more extremely biased output from you. Because every time you metaphorically contort into the left wing elitist, “moon the population” rhetoric you routinely espouse, you effectively paint a big red target on your exposed derriere. So, when you rhetorically bend over and touch your toes, is it any wonder that we show you where the wild goose goes?