For better or worse, there’s a great deal of debate on the ethics of running campaigns. Unfortunately, there are some people out there who are willing to tell outright lies to help their candidate win. Other things are more debatable: some people find robo-calls a bit dishonest and a little bit of a cheat, while others see a great deal of efficacy in using the technique.
However, the clearest line comes in voter registration programs. Most campaign strategies of the last decade have relied heavily on registering new voters. However, registering voters is heavily regulated by law, laws which vary state by state. In Virginia, once a Voter Registration form is handed to you, you have an obligation to turn in that form to the Registrar, even if the individual clearly tells you they are a Democrat. Voting is a sacred right in this country, and if you’re going to help individuals do it in a setting such as a fair or festival, you have to follow your obligation to the law. As someone who helped run registration and absentee ballot operations for the College Republicans at UVA in 2004, I can tell you that the smallest discrepancy will yield a call from the local registrar.
With all of the excitement surrounding the election, groups are paying individuals to canvass. However, there’s a great deal of pressure with this approach, and it can often lead to trouble, particularly when the law is not clearly explained to canvassers. Youthful exuberance can lead to mistakes, which cannot be afforded when doing something as sensitive as voter registration. If I could do it over again, I’m not sure I would have taken on the task of registering voters in 2004 in an environment such as UVA, where students are from all over the country.
More troubling, however, is when someone who is already registered again. Either someone was trying to meet their quota and foolishly took names out of the phone book, or this was a serious attempt at identity fraud. Fortunately, the RPV is paying close attention to events all across the state.
Virginia GOP Chairman calls for criminal investigation into mounting evidence of coordinated voter fraud activities
Richmond, Virginia (July 28, 2008) – Delegate Jeff Frederick, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, this morning called on Governor Kaine and Attorney General McDonnell to open a thorough and rigorous investigation into what appears to be coordinated and widespread voter fraud activities occurring throughout Virginia.Frederick’s request is in response to a report last week of three individuals in Hampton, Virginia being arrested and charged with voter registration fraud, a Class 5 Felony, as well as reports of fraudulent voter registration forms in Richmond. According to a signed affidavit, a Richmond voter had a fraudulent new registration card submitted to the local registrar. When the victim was notified on Thursday afternoon, the registrar informed her that there were other similar applications submitted in Richmond. (see affidavit)
The individuals in Hampton worked for Community Voters Project – a 3rd party group with ties to Fund for Public Interest and the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). PIRG, which seems to be a front group for a number of left wing causes, has a documented history of attempting to add fraudulent, phony or duplicative names to the voter registries across the nation.
“It seems nearly every day, I read or hear of some news report about how many new people are being registered to vote in Virginia in anticipation of the Presidential race this year. Getting more citizens involved in the process is great – that’s what democracy is all about. Yet, nothing undermines democracy more than poisoning the process and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections,” said Frederick.
“This is a very serious and troubling trend that we are seeing in Virginia,” he added. “Laws are being broken and Virginians have to wonder if there is a deliberate effort underway to corrupt and affect the outcome of November’s elections. I urge the Governor and Attorney General to take immediate action to investigate these matters.”
Even more troubling, Frederick said, was the opportunity for identity theft when citizens register to vote with these groups, as people must give a correct social security number on the voter registration form.
“People must exercise extreme caution when putting their private information into the hands of a stranger, for obvious reasons. I encourage voters to contact their local registrars and the major credit bureaus to verify that their voter and financial information has not been tampered with.”
Following my post on energy, Suzanne Curran has pointed me towards a speech that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican, gave on Saturday. In the speech, he slams his colleagues for inaction on this issue, accusing them of putting political positioning over making tough choices that will deeply affect the lives of the present and future generations of Americans. His two major issues are the mortgage bailout and energy, but the point remains. The full text is here, but here’s some key snippets:
So here we go, we are saying we are fixing the problem, but we are working on it only when it is in crisis. Then, when we have the political momentum to do what is right and fix the long term and the short term, what do we do? We run because we are more interested in our political futures, in our political careers than we are the opportunities and potential employment opportunities and lifestyles for our children and grandchildren.
Just as my colleagues have been talking about energy, the Senator from Tennessee very well knows that the time to address the problems we are talking about right now in terms of more production was 15 years ago. Now the Senate sits stuck because we are worried about the political fallout of perhaps having amendments to drill where the oil is and that might not fit one political party’s agenda.
But I will tell you what, it fits the American people’s agenda. So we have this debate and this division that is becoming partisan. It is all on the basis of how do we look good in November. I want to tell you, none of us look good to the American people, because we are not fixing the problems on a timely basis. We are not allowing the historical precedents of this body, which is debate and amendments, to mold and create legislation that adequately reflects the risks and problems that future generations are going to encounter.
……
This year, American taxpayers sent $700 billion of their money–a large portion of it–to countries that would like to see us done in. We are going to continue to do that until such time as we have a cogent energy policy, regardless of global warming or carbon problems. It is at least going to take 30 years. So we ought to take that out of the realm and say: How do we quit giving away our fortune, our future, and our assets to other people? Even if we all agreed on global warming, we can all agree it will take a long time to transition away from carbon-based fuels. Why would we not have a debate on every possible way in which we can find more American energy, American resources, American security, and use less foreign resources?
I noted on the floor on Monday that our national security is at extreme risk today. There is a historical precedent. When the Egyptians took over the Suez Canal, the British and French had a great amount of debt. We owned most of it. We were adamantly opposed to them attacking Egypt to bring back the Suez Canal under their control. We didn’t fire the first shot against the French and English. Do you know what we told them? We said: If you do this, we are going to put your debt onto the market. We will wreck your economy. We will create inflation and create a decreased standard of living. So you dare not do this. Do you know what. They knew it would happen and that we would do that. Consequently, a war was averted.
Think now, with China owning a trillion dollars of our debt, and another trillion dollars in the Middle East. What happens if they don’t like our foreign policy and they decide to dump our debt onto the market? How much national security do we have?
…..
So the idea that we would not utilize every potential resource America has to solve this energy crisis, the fact we will not be allowed and are not allowed to have a true debate with true amendments that bring that forth to the American public, says we are highly dysfunctional, and that it is all about the next election, and it is never about the good and long-term interests of the country.
That has to stop in this body. It has to stop. It doesn’t matter if it is a Democrat or a Republican. It has to stop for future generations of this country. We need to quit worrying about whether we get reelected and start working on what is in the best long-term interests of this country.
………
So we are going to have $11 billion on the floor sometime next week, and we are going to talk about subhuman primate transfer and the War of 1812 Commission, but we are not going to work to solve the energy problems of the people in this country. We are going to talk about doing things the CDC and the NIH already have the power to do, but it doesn’t look good because we cannot have a press release or press conference and say we didn’t do something for a lobbyist’s special interest.
We are not going to create nuclear generation or go after the oil shale, and we are not going to go off the coast to find, in an environmentally friendly way, resources that will lessen that $700 billion of our Treasury we ship out of the country every year. Instead, we are going to do things that politically look good. If you oppose them, you might politically look bad. But we are not going to address the real issues in front of the country, as a whole. It is an amazement to me that when the figures were released, they reflected 9 percent of the people have confidence in the Senate. I wonder where those people are. If they are paying attention to this place, they could not have any confidence in it, because we are not addressing the real issues that are, in fact, impacting America today, American families today but, more importantly, national security today and tomorrow, and the wealth, health, and well-being of future generations.
Coburn is exactly the sort of conservative who will get this party moving again. Although he has suffered his share of controversy for his conservative social views in the past, he has moved beyond that and become a real leader on fiscal issues in the Senate. Coburn is also a man of integrity, being one of just a handful of Representatives who kept to their promise to keep their own term limits. Oklahoma rewarded him with a Senate seat; now, the conservative movement is beginning to notice him, and talk of veep or even Coburn ‘12 or ‘16 isn’t too far fetched…..
Very, very light newsday. So light, in fact, we don’t have a single only have one county story. Still, here’s five six stories you should know about:
-We’ll be seeing plenty more of these, but Marsha Mercer sees a repeat of 1996 in this year’s campaign.
-Christopher Beam writes about some new swing groups that may be emerging in this year’s election.
-The Commonwealth is 29th in the nation when it comes to volunteerism. The ranking is based on the number of residents over 16 who say they regularly volunteer.
-Absentee ballots cast by people who don’t live until Election Day will now be counted in Virginia. Apparently this HAS happened before.
-Neil Simon writes that McCain may have a chance with connecting to voters in Northern Virginia. Although some write it off as a Democratic stronghold, one must only remember the names of Ken Cucinelli and Bob Marshall to know that conservative Republicans can still win in Northern Virginia–it’s all about messaging and priorities.
UPDATE:
-The Northern Virginia Daily now has coverage up of the Sixth District Retreat Luncheon.
Filed under: Congress, Domestic Policy, Election 2008, State Government and Politics
It seems that both the U.S. Senate race and the Congressional race are quickly beginning to revolve around issues of America’s energy policy. Here’s a round-up of articles related to energy in Virginia and the Nation. But first, I encourage you to sign American Solutions’ petition calling on Congress to act through a policy of “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.” Local Republican Activist is pushing hard on this issue, not just locally but nationwide.
Onto the Round-Up:
-The Wall Street Journal reveals that Pittsylvania County apparently contains one of the largest unmined deposits of uranium in the country. Yet Virginia is one of just four states to ban Uranium mining (though it does allow the operation of plants and enrichment of Uranium). Mining is apparently the safest step in the nuclear fuel cycle. Expect a great deal of debate over reversing the ban during the next General Assembly session.
-Meanwhile, in Southwestern Virginia environmentalists are fighting the building of a new coal powered plant. The new generation of coal plants has great potential to help with the energy crisis (combined with other methods), but environmentalists continue to obstruct a plan that has a great deal of potential for this economically distressed region.
-In Washington, Congressman Goodlatte is fighting with others to force the Democrats to at the very least take a vote on a viable plan for energy, something they seem to be lacking these days:
Unfortunately, the Majority in Congress has failed to bring any legislation to the floor that would increase domestic energy production, and lower energy prices. Instead they have proposed placing restrictions on the marketplace which has the opposite effect of what is needed. Last week, I was pleased to join with over 100 Members of Congress in introducing comprehensive legislation which will increase the supply of American-made energy, expand and encourage the use of renewable and alternative American fuels, fund research and development of new and innovative energy technologies, and increase energy efficiency and conservation to reduce consumption and protect our environment.
The American Energy Act modernizes the nation’s energy policy by tapping into more of our massive energy resources located in the deep seas on the outer-continental shelf (OCS). This important resource could provide an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Additionally, it would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, known as ANWR, to energy exploration, which could provide an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day for the next 30 years. The legislation also encourages construction of new oil refineries by reducing the bureaucratic red tape that currently exists and has prevented the construction of a new refinery since the late 1970s.
Additionally, the American Energy Act improves energy conservation and efficiency by providing tax incentives for businesses and families that purchase more fuel efficient vehicles and providing tax incentives for businesses and homeowners who improve their energy efficiency. The legislation provides a monetary prize for development of an affordable, fuel efficient vehicle which can reach 100 miles-per-gallon.
Finally, the American Energy Act promotes alternative and renewable energy technologies by permanently extending the tax credit for alternative energy production such as wind, solar and hydrogen. This important legislation also establishes a renewable energy trust fund using the revenues generated from exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf and ANWR and encourages the production of more nuclear power which provides greenhouse gas emission-free energy.
-Finally, Spank that Donkey! defends Governor Gilmore on his energy policy.
Amazingly enough the Mark Warner for Senate campaign can not admit their fact check on drilling for oil and natural gas in and/or ANWR and off shore the Continental USA has been completely been debunked!
Governor Gilmore called all of their tripe on the subject baloney, and they ridiculed him in their supposed ‘fact check’, only to have reality slap them in the face with when President Bush lifted the Presidential moratorium on drilling off shore. Since that time oil has dropped:
