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NM GOP Lawyer Pushing Voter Fraud: It's "Single Greatest Wedge Issue Ever."
Yesterday we told you about Pat Rogers, the New Mexico Republican lawyer who, according to reports, is deeply involved in the state party's effort to make an issue out of voter fraud -- despite essentially no evidence that such fraud is occurring. As we noted, Rogers also played a central role a few years ago in pressuring former U.S. attorney David Iglesias to bring politically motivated voter-fraud cases. Iglesias' reluctance to bring such cases led to his firing in 2006.
But it's worth paying a bit more attention to Rogers, to see how the Justice Department's new nationwide investigation into ACORN, in which New Mexico seems to be a crucial focus -- appears to represent the very same politicization of DOJ that was exposed in the scandal over the US attorney firings.
As we noted yesterday, Rogers' role in pressing Iglesias to pursue voter fraud prosecutions was extensive. According to the OIG report on the firings, Rogers set up a lunch meeting with Iglesias, and met with an FBI agent -- among many other activities -- to push the issue.
Perhaps most damagingly, the report contains a September 2004 email sent to Iglesias and several staffers for New Mexico's GOP congressional delegation, in which Rogers admitted that he was interested in the issue in large part for its potential to help the GOP:
I believe the [voter] ID issue should be used (now) at all levels - federal, state legislative races and Heather [Wilson]'s race ... You are not going to find a better wedge issue ... I've got to believe the [voter] ID issue would do Heather more good than another ad talking about how much federal taxpayer money she has put into the (state) education system and social security ... This is the single best wedge issue, ever in NM. We will not have this opportunity again ... Today, we expect to file a new Public Records lawsuit, by 3 Republican legislators, demanding the Bernalillo county clerk locate and produce (before Oct 15) ALL of the registrations signed by the ACORN employee.
But Rogers is no mere local player on the Republican voter fraud team. He was on the board of the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR), a fake think-tank which was little more than an effort by GOP operatives to offer an intellectual gloss to politically motivated claims of voter fraud -- and which abruptly closed down operations in 2007.
ACVR was run by Mark "Thor" Hearne, who served as national election counsel to President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign. Jim Dyke -- who was the communications director of the Republican National Committee during the 2004 election, and went on to work for both the White House and for Vice President Cheney -- was also involved.
Writing in Slate last year, election-law expert Rick Hasen described ACVR's modus operandi:
Consisting of little more than a post-office box and some staffers who wrote reports and gave helpful quotes about the pervasive problems of voter fraud to the press, the group identified Democratic cities as hot spots for voter fraud, then pushed the line that "election integrity" required making it harder for people to vote. The group issued reports (PDF) on areas in the country of special concern, areas that coincidentally tended to be presidential battleground states. In many of these places, it now appears the White House was pressuring U.S. attorneys to bring more voter-fraud prosecutions.
Here's Rogers, on behalf of ACVR, telling CNN back in 2004 about the need for "safeguards to make sure that citizens only are voting."
And now this is the guy who's involved in pushing voter fraud claims in connection with an investigation in which the FBI is already involved.
Rogers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It's also worth keeping in mind that New Mexico -- which went for Al Gore in 2000 by just 365 votes, and President Bush in 2004 by around 6000 -- is crucial for John McCain's chances. Today, MSNBC.com quotes an RNC official saying: "[T]he numbers -- public and private -- in the [south west] have swung wildly. We believe the possibility of NV or NM breaking at the last minute is likely and we have our dominos lined up to knock down the win at the last minute."
It looks like one of those dominoes is Rogers' effort to use bogus claims of voter fraud as "the single best wedge issue ever."
Josh
Zachary
Professor Rick Hasen of Loyola Law School, who you cited above, had a very good blog post last week on the current ACORN kerfuffle, complete with a list of reasons why the GOP and media are still beating what should be a dead horse.
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/011861.html
October 21, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice job, Zach.
I see where John Fund, former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board from 1995-2001, has a revised edition out of his earlier book,
Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy. It is prominently displayed in local (DC and northern Virginia) bookstores.
Fund is a columnist at the Wall Street Journal's website as well as a Senior Editor and columnist at the magazine The American Spectator. He "collaborated" with Rush Limbaugh on Limbaugh's 1993 book The Way Things Ought to Be.
I read the earlier edition of Fund's book, published in 2004. Its argument: voter fraud is a serious problem, and one committed by both parties. Elections can be decided, he asserts, by the votes of dead people, illegal felon voters, and absentee voters that simply don't exist, which is what Fund means by fraud (as opposed to the kind of fraud that hacking electronic voting machines to secretly alter vote counts would represent if proven). This will come as a shock to tpm denizens, but voter suppression was not examined or identified as a problem.
The publisher of the book is Encounter Books, which publishes conservative books. Its editor is Roger Kimball, who announced on June 23, 2008, that heretofore, his company would no longer send its books to The New York Times for review. Read his letter making this announcement, which cites many titles Encounter has published, and form your own conclusions.
October 21, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
He really really needs the GOP to win, or else he will surely be indicted. That's some motivation.
October 21, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
He needs not only to be indicted both civilly and criminally by the gov't -- Federal and state -- but also sued into the ground by any private parties who have standing to do so.
His low-IQ notwithstanding.
October 22, 2008 11:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why isn't voter suppression a federal crime, punishable under Federal, or better yet, the RICO statutes?
A few convictions with confiscation of all assets would go a long way to stop this insult to the American political system.
October 21, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is. It is simply a matter of interpreting the terms of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
And even some southern state prohibit it in terms of such as coercion and intimidation.
Simply put: one doesn't have the right -- it is illegal -- to prevent anyone voting who meets the terms of the law -- which law must conform to the Constitution.
October 23, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is. It is simply a matter of interpreting the terms of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
And even some southern state prohibit it in terms of such as coercion and intimidation.
Simply put: one doesn't have the right -- it is illegal -- to prevent anyone voting who meets the terms of the law -- which law must conform to the Constitution.
October 23, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shout some epithets, slash some tires, suppress a thousands of people's votes, scare a few thousand more people from voting, disqualify some more through caging, then get someone like Mike Connell, Rove's fixer who now works for Mccain, to flip some more in key races... we need to have a OVERWHELMING number of people vote so despite the GOP's best efforts to enact their worst intentions, they lose.
Just read that Mccain is banking on taking PA... tho' today he's down by 10. Their ES&S voting machines were just 'certified' in secret by SysTest which is under investigation for collusion with ES&S and poor test practices... Hmmmmmmm. Anyone know where Mike Connell is?
October 21, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Block the Vote
Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?
These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote
http://crooksandliars.com/cernig/assault-democracy#comment-889433
Friends don’t ask friends to vote on Provisional Ballots!
October 21, 2008 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Patrick Rogers may be a worse character than one might imagine. His firm is the number one firm in New Mexico and as a result there is little resistance to his actions. He and they do pretty much what they can get away with. So I would not look for a prosecution for conspiracy or even a mild rebuke from the bar for his traitorous attempts to undermine the electoral process of the USA.
We had first hand experience with Mr. Rogers as opposing counsel in a matter litigated from December 2003 until August 2008 (the appeal). We had counsel whom we fired, who explained at the outset of our legal battle that he had prevailed in a matter with Mr. Rogers during Rogers' stint as counsel to the GOP and that Rogers would be trying to "even the score." Our counsel appeared to be more interested in his relationship with Mr. Rogers than with the matter for which he was retained.
Mira, estamos in Nuevo Mexico and there "aren't a lot of laws" out here to get in the way, or so we've been told by $200+ per hour lawyers. After the trial phase of our family dispute (a civil matter), Mr. Rogers notified our counsel to seize our passports, as we were a "flight risk." It sounds a bit unconstitutional of course but consider the source. Rogers' courtroom antics bordered on criminal except for the fact its New Mexico and New Mexico's national ranking for judicial conduct and fairness in the judicial system is right there with it’s ranking in literacy and education –– at the bottom –– it's no surprise that Mr. Rogers would have free reign in New Mexico.
Seriously, if you had met this man you'd realize there's no stopping him. When you read Mickey and Pat's correspondence to Rove and others and follow the chain of events leading up to dismissal of Iglesias, ask yourself if he can do this, what's to stop him, congress? Right. Think subpoenas ignored by Rove, Bush's cleaning lady and Cheney's COS and then remember, Finegold and Schumer. How about Biden in the AG Gonzales hearings, "You're the real deal!" and "I like you…" as a path toward justice in 21st Century America.
No, I think reading about Rogers is fun for me and I know he deserves worse than "disbarment for life" and I know what a treacherous individual he is, but this is 21st Century USA. Europe calls us the “New America.” Look at the looting of the Treasury, watch Wall Street bonuses and dividends be paid out of Treasury dollars and buckle in, enjoy the ride, as the destination is always the same. You get off the ride and you’re still standing in sawdust on the Midway of the Carnival. If you’re more inclined to the Italians, the "Bread and Circus" are great, “…join us in the fun at the Coliseum.” Rogers will pass though unscathed.
October 21, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
***SED***That's depressing. Seems the lawyers can use the law to promote a criminal agenda without worry of accountability. Time for the unexpected to happen...the unplanned for ...the unforeseeable...some miracle because American Justice seems incapable of coping with these abuses. Most of us have had enough already but feel powerless to stop it but perhaps we can become more aware and take the first steps to begin to change it. Voting out republicans at all levels of government is a good start and republicans know that an Obama win means we will get our DoJ back. That is a major step in dealing with the stealing of elections...a functional Department of Justice...just imagine....
October 22, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rogers also played a central role a few years ago in pressuring former U.S. attorney David Iglesias to bring politically motivated voter-fraud cases. Iglesias' reluctance to bring such cases led to his firing in 2006.
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You fail to state he obvious: Rgers was involved also in the ILLEGAL firing of Iglesias, in violation of LAW.
But that's Republican "deregulation": if a law intereferes with what one wants to do, ignore the law. If what one wants to do violates the law, or is unconstitutional, do it anyway because it is necessary to do so because one is being victimized by the law-abiding.
October 22, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've got to believe the [voter] ID issue would do Heather more good than another ad talking about how much federal taxpayer money she has put into the (state) education system and social security ...
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I though Republicans are opposed to earmarks? Well, that is what McPalin claim . . .
Otherwise, someone with standing should sue this low-IQ jackass for overt fraud. He is exploiting the system, at taxpayer expense, to promote and further an obvious fraud against -- the taxpayer who doesn't vote Republican/racist.
October 22, 2008 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would like to know if this kind of issue is getting any attention in local news outlets, and what the local voter's reactions are.
October 24, 2008 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to know that also.
Would like to see all the voter disenfranchisement efforts brought together in one place were on TPM.
October 24, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink