Posted on 10/20/2004 10:07:27 PM PDT by pittsburgh gop guy
Thursday, October 21, 2004 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- State House Republican leader Sam Smith demanded yesterday that Gov. Ed Rendell call off his plan to send state-appointed "election monitoring teams" into each county on Nov. 2 to check on any voting "problems" that might arise.
Democrat Rendell emphatically refused to drop the plan to send out the two-person teams, sarcastically saying that "partisan particles in the air in this [Capitol] building have warped people's judgment and perspectives."
The demand by Smith and other Republicans "is ludicrous," Rendell said at a news conference. "They ought to be embarrassed."
The governor said the state Capitol "is a very partisan place. It stinks. It's an unhealthy building and needs to be cleaned out."
Smith, R-Punxsutawney, charged that the Rendell administration's actions leading up to this election "have helped create an atmosphere of panic" in the state. Smith claimed Rendell was acting as if Pennsylvania "could be the next Florida," referring to the hanging chads and other ballot problems that beset the 2000 presidential election in Florida, delaying certification of the vote results for several weeks.
"Pennsylvania is not Florida," Smith said in a letter to Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes. Smith said Cortes' job "is to allay the fears of our residents, not build them up" with unfounded fears about election fraud.
State Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, condemned the monitoring teams as Democratic "SWAT teams." He and other Republicans said there's no provision in state law for creating them and elections officials in the 67 counties don't need them.
Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Republican leader David Brightbill of Lebanon, said Rendell's creation of the monitoring teams "was a clandestine process, concocted in secret meetings. [Administration officials] opened the process only after being forced to because the press and Republicans learned about it."
Smith asked Cortes: "We are asked not to talk about nefarious motives, yet what else should the people of Pennsylvania think as you were secretly planning to insert political appointees into each county on Election Day?"
Rendell became agitated when asked by a reporter yesterday if he would comply with the GOP's demand to eliminate the monitors.
"Are you kidding?" he snapped. "If I changed my decisions based on letters from Republican leaders, I would make no decisions. If I decided to declare that today is Wednesday, it could generate a letter from the Republican leadership asking me to reverse that decision. We have to do what we believe is best."
"My primary goal [in sending the teams] is for citizens to have confidence that this election is fair. Nothing is as important to me as carrying out this election in a fair and open way."
Two lawyers for Senate Republicans, Stephen MacNett and J. Andrew Crompton, separately criticized Rendell for choosing a high-profile Democratic campaign adviser, Philadelphia attorney Mark Aronchick, to head up the Election Day supervision over potential voting problems.
Aronchick has "a deeply held bias" against President Bush and an "equally troubling perception of lack of objectivity," MacNett and Crompton said in a letter to Rendell.
They said Aronchick had just quit three weeks ago as an adviser to the presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. John Kerry. They said that Aronchick, in a newspaper interview in February, had accused Bush of having "a contemptible pseudo-sincerity" and "a heart of darkness" and had claimed that Bush "is playing to base fears" in the public.
Rendell dismissed those Republican complaints also, saying Aronchick is doing free public service for the state in his role as an election adviser. Any knowledgeable elections attorney has worked for some political campaign in the past, so finding a neutral person is impossible, Rendell said.
"My primary goal [in sending the teams] is for citizens to have confidence that this election is fair. Nothing is as important to me as carrying out this election in a fair and open way." - Governor Rendell
So what does he do? Put someone in charge that has given thousands of dollars THIS YEAR to Democrats that are running and on the ballot.
I checked www.opensecrets.org - and found the following:
Total for this search: $14,000
|
Contributor |
Occupation |
Date |
Amount |
Recipient |
|
ARONCHICK, JUDITH |
UNIV OF PA MED. CENTER/PHYSICIAN |
3/3/2004 |
$2,000 |
Kerry, John |
|
ARONCHICK, JUDITH M |
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA |
6/30/2004 |
$2,000 |
Hoeffel, Joseph M |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK A |
HANGLEY ARONCHICK SEBAL & PUDLIN/AT |
3/3/2004 |
$2,000 |
Kerry, John |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK A ESQ |
HANGLEY ARONCHICK SEGAL & PUDLIN |
5/24/2004 |
$2,000 |
Hoeffel, Joseph M |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK |
HANGLEY AND ARONCHICK |
6/8/2004 |
$1,000 |
Castor, Betty |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK |
HANGLEY ARONCITICK/ATTORNEY |
12/18/2003 |
$1,000 |
Dean, Howard |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK A |
HANGLEY ARONCHICK SEGAL & PUDLIN/AT |
12/16/2003 |
$1,000 |
Torsella, Joseph M |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK A ESQ |
HANGLEY ARONCHICK SEGAL & PUDLIN/AT |
4/24/2004 |
$1,000 |
Schwartz, Allyson |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK A ESQ |
HANGLEY ARONCHICK SEGAL & PUDLIN/AT |
6/29/2004 |
$1,000 |
Schwartz, Allyson |
|
ARONCHICK, JUDITH |
HOSPITAL OF THE UNIV OF PA/PHYSICIA |
5/8/2003 |
$500 |
Dean, Howard |
|
ARONCHICK, MARK A ESQ |
HANGLEY ARONCHICK SEGAL & PUDLIN/AT |
6/27/2004 |
$500 |
Murphy, Lois |
all you need to do is run a search for ARONCHICK at www.opensecrets.org
Oh, he's not trying. He's doing. The GOP sounds like they're just gonna bend over and take it, from this article.
No - some counties are talking about not letting anyone that Rendell sends into their County election board on Election Day. PA is a Commonwealth - Rendell will have to send troops to get into the Courthouses of some Republican counties......
hope rendell remembers his partisan claims when it comes time for his reelection.
"Pennsylvania is not Florida," Smith said in a letter to Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes. Smith said Cortes' job "is to allay the fears of our residents, not build them up" with unfounded fears about election fraud.
We saw what happened in Florida 4 years ago. It's going to happen again, only THIS time, it's already documented that voter fraud is rampant. We can't catch all of it, but we CAN keep a vigilant eye to keep our election as fraud-free as possible. I signed up to be a poll monitor. I will be completely non-partisan in this role. (Yes, it can be done) We have to safeguard our voting system, and make sure that no one votes multiple times, that all who vote are above room-temperature and breathing on their own, and that no one is voting with a "Get out of jail free" card! It's sad we have come to this, but this is where we are.
Will these two-person teams be wearing brown shirts so they can be easily recognized?
And Rendell will use that to maintain that the GOP is going to steal the election in those counties.
The GOP needs to do the same thing, and make the monitors just as partisan.
Will they wear brown shirts and jack boots ?...
Unfortunately, to the average Joe on the street, this makes it sound like the GOP is trying to hide something. Of course that is how it is being spun by the MSM.
I'm sure these "monitors" will expose the fraud when the ballot boxes are being stuffed in Philly late that night.
If the people of PA still vote for Kerry and Rendull after this kind of behavior, then President Bush doesn't need this state. But what I suspect, when word gets out about this, it will ensure President Bush carries it, and Rendull will be gone in the next Governor's race.
How about letters from PA Voters???
I'm thinking folks in PA need to step up and help our Representatives and Demand an end to this farce
What's needed is some GRASSROOTS!!
Without benefiting financially, what would make this person give up his valuable time to do this "service"?
Is there some reason these brownshirts "teams" and indeed their management were not made non-partisan to begin with? Is it rocket science?
Letter away...
Well, ya dippity doodoo dumb sh!t, then why are you mandating an election check from the state capital?
The dem's are very consistent anyway for They never cease to amaze me with their political BS.
My apologize for the rant. I think I have been struck with the "electionitous" bug.
Actually I would believe it if he were licking doggie doo off Kerry's Birkenstocks. Liberals are SLINKING to NEW LOWS this year! Just when I think they have sunk to the lowest possible depth.....
"Will they wear brown shirts and jack boots ?..."
NO - they will wear $2,000 suits and Gucci shoes...
I do believe that under FEDERAL law, it is illegal to have election monitors inside the polling place and the police should be called immediately at every polling place where these people show up....................
To: LibertarianInExile
No - some counties are talking about not letting anyone that Rendell sends into their County election board on Election Day. PA is a Commonwealth - Rendell will have to send troops to get into the Courthouses of some Republican counties......
Chin...I believe that this is the correct thing to do...take pictures, take names, call the police, call the feds, call Rep lawyers don't let them steal PA
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