Terry McAuliffe, former national chair of the Democratic National Committee, is the leading candidate for the Virginia Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination this year. The primary is in June 2009. Free & Equal has just released a press release, pointing out that whereas this year McAuliffe is saying good things about election participation, in 2004 he spent millions of dollars to physically prevent voters from voting for Ralph Nader. Thanks to Independent Political Report for the news. FURTHER UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times has this, and The Nation is now featuring the story here. UPDATE: a Washington Post blog has picked up the story; see here, and here is a Post news story.
Interesting. I am not sure the offer itself was unethical — was it illegal? — but one might want to see what he feels about ballot access law reform — a specific issue for the state
The offer is only the tip of the iceberg. Nader filed suit in 2007 alleging that McAuliffe and the Democratic National Committee coordinated a conspiracy to keep Nader off the 2004 presidential ballot in half the states.
The first is Nader v Democratic National Committee, 2007ca-7245B, case # 08-7074; the second is Nader v McAuliffe, 1:07-cv-1101.
Additionally, the Pennsylvania case has been dragging on since 2004. The evidence of a conspiracy at the state level there is very strong, seeing as related criminal charges have been brought against many of the PA Democrats involved (the so called “BallotGate”). It would be surprising if McAuliffe didn’t know about the actions in PA and at least tacitly approve of them.
Its also probable that Democratic politicians in other states joined in similar conspiracies. McAuliffe undoubtedly played a role in all of it.
I was looking for a single article wrapping up Nader’s suits against the DNC et al. Is there a resource for that somewhere?
There is only one Nader lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee. Although originally there had been one in Virginia and another in D.C., the Virginia one no longer exists. The US Court of Appeals in D.C. will be issuing an opinion any day now.
I hope McAuliffe loses the election badly.
It looks like this story might be gaining some traction. The Nation is reporting on it and saying that McAuliffe offered a “bribe” to Nader. I posted about it on Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/28/736481/-Terry-McAuliffe-a-fraudNo…
I received this email from Theresa Amato on Thu, May 28, 2009 at 8:47 PM:
It’s on Raw Story too:
which links to the original press release! at Free and Equal! — Finally, since everyone was writing off the Post, instead of the release, which is more comprehensive.
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/05/nader-mcauliffe-offered-me-money-to-pull-out-of-key-states/
Thank you all so much. T.