From Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning…
The director, Matthew Damschroder, has told prosecutors that the consultant, Pat Gallina, came to his office in early 2004, offering him $10,000.
“Pat Gallina came into my office at the Board of Elections and said, ‘I’m here to give you $10,000. Who should I direct it to?’ ” Damschroder recalled. “I said, ‘Certainly not to me. But I’m sure the Franklin County Republican Party would appreciate a voluntary donation. That was my first mistake.”
The law prohibits Damschroder from accepting political contributions on county property. He said he took the check home and mailed it to the party, where he had just completed a stint as executive director.
…
Damschroder told prosecutor O’Brien of Gallina’s visit after his testimony was sought in a civil suit filed by one of Diebold’s competitors, Election Systems and Software.
ES&S charges in that suit that Secretary of State Ken Blackwell improperly favored Diebold in selecting electronic voting machines for use statewide.
…
Gallina told him that he and Cummings agreed on the cut-rate price Diebold would charge the state for its machines, and that Gallina promised in return to give $50,000 to “Blackwell interests.”
Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, called the claim “absolutely ridiculous,” and that Cummings has not negotiated any part of the state’s voting machine contracts.
…
Diebold executives had ceased contributing directly to political campaigns in October 2003, after the company president sparked an uproar by saying he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes” to secure President Bush’s re-election.
Spokesman Mike Jacobsen said the firm pays Gallina – through Celebrezze & Associates – to work as a liaison on state and county government contracts.
“It’s a separate company,” he said. “Just because we contract with a lobbyist and they make a contribution doesn’t mean, in any way, that we use them as some sort of political back door to curry political favor.”
(Hat-tip BRAD BLOG commenter, KestrelBrighteyes for the catch via RAW STORY)
Oh no,
"Just because we contract with a lobbyist and they make a contribution doesn’t mean, in any way, that we use them as some sort of political back door to curry political favor."
Of course not. Holy GOP, how low will they all go? Wait, don’t tell me I already know the answer.
Yes, Torqued, I already know, too!
THERE IS NO LIMIT!!
LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, called the claim "absolutely ridiculous…."
I’m not sure I’d be so quick to use that phrase nowadays, what with Scottie McClelland’s similar 2003 characterization of the Rove charges in the news and all.
"absolutely ridiculous"
"an absurd assinuation"
"a pack of lies"
these are becoming standard admin phrases and they all mean the same thing: "We don’t have a leg to stand on with respect to the facts, so we’re gonna smear anyone who mentions those facts, or even alludes to them".
It seems to me I’ve heard that song before …
What boggles my mind about this story is that ES&S and Diebold would allow themselves to get tangled together in a legal suit where all kinds of evidence will be brought before a court. This suit could ruin the buisiness of both companies, not just in the state of Ohio, but elsewhere.
Also incredible:
ES&S is pissed that there was a secretive and unfair selection process for the selection of voting machines, and Diebold got selected.
Well ain’t that some shit.
Boo fucking hoo.
Get in the back of the line bitch, we’ve got several elections that haven’t been accounted for.
And ES&S, while you’re bitching about transparency, why don’t you give us all your programming codes, so you won’t be a fucking hypocrite??
OT – home made bumper stickers
I bought sheets that can be printed bumper stickers, from an ink jet printer. I just thought of a good snappy bumper sticker (I’ve seen this before, but I’m not sure what the exact wording was). Anyhow:
"Bush and Cheney had a plan to get out of Viet Nam"
Now that’s got some sting. I couldn’t find bumper stickers that said exactly what I wanted said, so I thought it would be awsome to be able to make my own. I haven’t actually done it yet, but I’ve got all the supplies. Kinda like a mini version of the Freeway Blogger.
good one!
"Bush and Cheney had a plan to get out of Viet Nam"
indeed!
and so did Perle and Feith and Wolfowitz and Rove and Bolton … and all the other chickenhawks! It’s perfect!!
WP #7
What you said could be a smaller font by-line of the bumper sticker. The whold thing being:
Main: "Bush and Cheney had a plan to get out of Viet Nam"
By-line: "as did Rove, Bolton, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith…"
I’d want to double check those guys though, because I’m a little rusty on exacly which chicken hawqs were the right age to serve, etc. I wouldn’t want the sticker to be inaccurate. Are you certain that each of those neo-cons you names all dodged viet nam in some way?
How about:
"Bush & Cheney were NOT in Vietnam,
so why are they in Iraq?"
Bejammin075 re #8: NO, I am NOT not certain … I was just blabbering … I think I’m right but not 100% sure … on the other hand, it wouldn’t be hard to find out how old these guys are … and what they were doing in the late 60s and early 70s …
On the other hand, does it really matter? Your original wording was fine!!
While we are on the topic of Iraq & Vietnam, here is an interesting article comparing the two.
Iraq is spelled with "I" and Vietnam with "V".
Read the article titled "Iraq Is Not Vietnam – Jul. 16th, 2005 @ 02:25 pm"
Many similarities and Iraq isn’t much better.
Uncanny isn’t it?
For more info on the colourful Mr Pasquale “Pat” Gallina, click here.
Why is DIEBOLD a client of a Republican political consultant? THAT should be investigated. That’s a conflict of interest, proving the electronic voting machine companies are in bed with the Republicans. The voting machine companies are supposed to be non-partisan, but they are not. And they don’t pass basic vote security, such as providing a paper trail for recountability. How do these machines get installed, when they don’t pass vote security? That should be investigated. But, now we know how. Election officials take bribes to install them.
I don’t think I’ve even seen an investigative article on the history of how electronic voting machines were installed around the country. I’ve heard that it’s well over 80% of the country that has them, and most are DIEBOLD. How did that happen? It was very quietly done. One day there were none, and now close to 100% of the country installed them, and very quietly, not followed by the media. It’s happening where I live now. And if these machines don’t pass basic voter security, has there ever been an investigative article about how they are somehow installed anyway? I did hear one of the reasons officials have been giving, is that "everyone’s installing them, they’re modern". That’s not a good reason!
Brad. Did Clint Curtis write his vote-hacking program specifically to run on DIEBOLD machines? Or was it for a generic platform, for any electronic voting machine? Are there any connections between Feeney and DIEBOLD, or Yang and DIEBOLD? I don’t remember any specific mention of any electronic voting machine companies in any Clint Curtic article. But, if something like 80% of the machines around the country are DIEBOLD, I’m sure there’s a connection between DIEBOLD and Feeney and/or Yang Enterprises. And, big surprise, Feeney’s a Republican, and the political consultant who gave the bribe is a Republican.
Are we all stupid? It still comes back to the MSM not reporting on this. Why are they covering the Rove story 24×7, but still stay away from any vote fraud stories? It makes me wonder about the Rove story. Why did they choose to cover that one so extensively?
If you compare the Rove story to the vote fraud story, it shows everyone just how bad the MSM is hurting the American citizens. If the MSM doesn’t cover a story they should, no one talks about it and the citizens are uninformed of important news affecting them. The MSM is covering the Rove story, and everyone and their brother is talking about it. That’s it in a nutshell, how the American MSM is hurting our country. It’s a crime to the citizens when they suppress a story.
Big Dan #15 and how did these voting machines get installed, research is now showing major problems with federal and state certification bodies. (E.g., established regulations not being followed by anyone, and no one doing anything about it.) ITA and NASED are just the beginning.
E.g. see http://www.bbvforums.org/forums...2197/6846.html
and http://www.bbvforums.org/forums...es/8/7574.html
and you’ll start to get the idea. (First one relates to a lawsuit recently filed in Florida; second relates to new machine certification in Washington state.)
(I’m on a different computer and don’t have the BradBlog Community Assistant bookmarked to generate the active links in html.)
Call me crazy, but it seems to me there ought to be a slew of lawsuits and/or "independent" investigations (do such things even exist in reality anymore?) looking into a whole list of things, first & foremost, of course, election fraud. But other issues that would fucking SCREAM for investigation if they had lungs, or if we had a media with a shred of ethics, might include
the nine billion dollars missing from Iraq (Jesus! I woulda thought that would at least trump steroids in baseball. Guess not)
the lying to Congress to get us into Iraq…is it illegal not to recognize a smoking gun when it’s in your face? Guess not. Guess that’s in the same category as outing a CIA agent "unknowingly".
all those scientific reports that were suppressed, ignored or "corrected" to jibe with the official administration line: is that LEGAL?
the Homeland Security funds that were siphoned off & used for other things: LEGAL?
the paying of reporters to spout administration propaganda: LEGAL?
& that’s not to mention the manufactured "news" bits with paid actors claiming to be reporters, which apparently IS legal (Christ!)
then there’s Tom Delay, Abramoff & the Marianas…
then there’s Halliburton & war profiteering…
then there’s the torture…
Ahhh jeez, I know you guys are aware of all this & that the list goes on & on & on.
Where are the lawyers? Where are the prosecutors?
We KNOW where Congress is (with a few precious, shining exceptions): they’re busy writing anti-flag-burning amendments.
NICE GOING YOU FUCKING BRAINLESS SPINELESS CONSCIENCELESS WORTHLESS MORONS!
Sorry. Sorry for shouting. Sorry for being DISRESPECTFUL!!! As if they deserve an OUNCE of respect.
Thank the gods for Brad Friedman & the people on this blog. I would lose my mind were it not for you.
Rant over. :]
So let me get this right…
ES&S are pissed that Diebold had corruptly set themselves up for preferable treatment when both were going after a contract for enabling election fraud???
The corrupt pricks at these blackbox voting companies are now bickering over who did and didn’t get the opportunity to be involved in the fraud.
I say shut down both, drain all funds from both… invest all that dirty money in real election reform. Take the money from the thieves and invest it in integrity.
Oh as for "suprise"… I’m as sarcasticly suprised as Brad appears to be…
WHAT!?!?!.. Election fraud in Ohio???. who’d have thought it possible?? Dirty bastards, the lot of ’em.
Hi Joan, re: "where are the investigators/prosecutors" hopefully some folks here will help investigate. Some other successful investigations are detailed here.
There is a lot more going on than what the Cleveland Plain Dealer mentioned, as you’ll see if you check out that link. And this is obviously just the tip of the iceberg. If one assumes that this kind of carry-on is fairly widespread (perhaps only slightly less flagrant) then that answers your question as to the lack of prosecutions.
This also leads back to that same question as to why the Dems are doing nothing about election reform.
See also the Columbus Dispatch story with some other nuggest of information (and which has email links to the journalists) here.
Pasquale "Pat" Gallina’s publicly listed address and phone number are available here.
He lives in a Columbus suburb
OT- To the republican operatives —
I have now set up intelligent filters to catch your hate mail. They all go into a special place and are archived to preserve your acts of division and hate. Does that make you feel any better?
Torqued, your mighty The BRAD BLOG & The BRAD SHOW Community Assistant works a treat!
My #13 Damschroder mouse rollover was a "piece of cake"!
Apologies to Jabba the Hut and George Lucas!