Monday Jan. 10, The Wall Street Journal's John Fund, an expert on vote, uh, fraud, writes about the latest in the Washington Governor's race controversy, and highlights the stellar work of Stefan Sharkansky of Sound Politics in uncovering statistical anomalies which cast grave doubt upon the current returns.
So.....Stefan, as Fund reports, you voluntereed once for Dukakis?
Hey, that's OK. Really. In fact, I myself was forcibly conscripted by my parents (who like me were also later mugged by reality, although pre-9/11, as it happens) to campaign for Eugene McCarthy for President, in '68.
We all ended up in the right place.
Anyhow, particularly noteworthy in Fund's report (and do, definitely, read the whole thing) is his call to an unidentified Seattle-area judge, in connection with a number of voters registered at the King County building, most of them homeless.
A noted local judge and her husband have been registered at the county building for years. When I called her to ask why, she became flustered and said it was because of security concerns, specifically because "the Mexican mafia are out to get me." When I pointed out that her home address and phone number were easily found on the Internet and in property records, she ended the conversation by refusing to answer a question about whether she had improperly voted for state legislative candidates who would represent the county building but not her residence.
Hey, whatever, judge. Phew. It gets curiouser and curiouser, don't it?
There's also this, from Fund's WSJ piece:
In his new book, "Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation," radio host and law professor Hugh Hewitt calls the new media a form of "open-source journalism" in which gatekeepers can no longer control what reaches the public. Readers and listeners interact with bloggers and talk show hosts so that a free market of ideas and information can emerge. "Blogs analyzed the Washington state election shenanigans in a more sophisticated and comprehensive way than the mainstream media," he told me. "When a swarm of blogs and new media focus on a story it can fundamentally alter the general public's understanding of an event or person. Ask John Kerry, Trent Lott, Tom Daschle and soon-to-retire CBS anchor Dan Rather if they think the new media changed people's perceptions of them."Similarly, when Christine Gregoire takes the oath of office as governor on Wednesday, she will still face a threat to her seat of power should the new media keep up the pressure and more evidence of a tainted vote count emerges in court.
Hat tip to Sound Politics contributor, peripatetic strategist, conservative villain and SP "Dirty Dozen" member from Seattle's beautiful Magnolia neighborhood, P. Scott Cummins.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 09, 2005 09:55 PM | Email ThisGreat blog!
The headlines in a matter of days will read: Gregoire elected by dead voters.
Posted by: martin ringhofer on January 9, 2005 10:32 PMKeep up the good work Soundpolitics!
If this really happened, who was the judge?
Otherwise this is going to be filed as just another internet blog rumor of the day which turns out to be useless.
If true, there is no libel issue so I don't know why you don't want to mention the name of the judge.
Are you sure it was a judge or someone who worked for the court. Was it an elected judge or some kind of administrative person working a juducial capacity?
Was there a type of cases they handles such as organized crime or terrorism cases that would make the address listing make sense or not?
Posted by: Erik on January 9, 2005 10:40 PMI live in Magnolia, pray for me...
Posted by: P. Scott Cummins on January 9, 2005 10:41 PMDateline Wenatchee -- "Things turned ugly today in this agricultural town, as it began to dawn on local residents that Gregoire's 'Healing Tour' was a de facto taxpayer-funded statewide campaign trip for the upcoming gubernatorial re-vote.
Dozens of angry, pitchfork-wielding farmers chased her out of town, hurling rotted produce and 'natural fertilizer', screaming 'Hey Gregoire-- Heal THIS !'
Stefan's work on this has been amazing. When all is said and done, assuming there is a revote, his name will be synonymous with other blog heroes. His involvement thus far has shown how important open source journalism is. Local papers only began doing their investigative journalism when Sharkansky found evidence of more than fifty cases of fraud. Now, these dailies are looking more and more like has-beens.
Posted by: bmvaughn on January 9, 2005 11:09 PM"Now, these dailies are looking more and more like has-beens."
You couldn't be more right. I canceled my PI subscription years ago, and canceled my Times today!!! I am free of no-fact, irresponsible, slanted, zero investigative "reporting" and I am loving it!
I responded that the model A was not a horse either, but within thirty years of its production a horse was not much more than a woman's plaything. Of course things move a bit faster now than in the early 20th century. We have entered the age of entrepreneurial news reporting and analysis. The 'news'papers which claim that blogs are affimation journalism forget that they have been pushing utopian myopia journalism on a dwindling number of readers for decades.
The best thing to come out of the governor's race has been the rise of the new print media in Western Washington. Hoping to see similar blogs arise in Tac-town, Olympia, etc. to keep up the free flow of information and empowerment of the people against out of control government. If anyone knows of good blogs focusing on the corruption specific to these locations please pass along the info.
Thanks again to the movers and shakers at Soundpolitics for all you are doing.
Posted by: Jericho on January 9, 2005 11:32 PMErik: "If this really happened, who was the judge?"
You'll have to ask John Fund. He reported it, I didn't.
One very effective way to do this would be political cartoons (like Seth Coopers).
Washingtonians all enjoy such efforts at comic relief, but can also appreciate the reality and satirical, yet truthful message they bring to the situation. Effective? Hell yeah! Keep it up SP!
Posted by: CR ACTIVIST on January 9, 2005 11:47 PMPersonal confessions aside, the Republican party now has a slight edge in national politics because the party has gained the support of former Democrats such as Stefan and myself. The most famous, of course, is Ronald Reagan, who was not just a Democrat, but a New Deal Democrat.
There has been a counter movement of Republicans becoming Democrats, but not nearly as large.
Posted by: Jim Miller on January 10, 2005 03:17 AMI hope she can truly heal, and is not proven to be a fraud. Well, that's one lie I am going to have to live with. Mine, not hers, I hope.
Posted by: jg on January 10, 2005 09:27 AMI spent a while today typing in names in the Seattle Times database search page trying to find a female judge in Seattle who voted in Zip Code 98104. I looked for their names on the King County Circuit Court, District Court, and Federal Court of Appeals websites. I didn't go to the Municipal Court level yet, since John Fund referred to her as "notable."
No luck so far.
Any ideas where else I can look? If so, please post them.
Posted by: Regret on January 10, 2005 06:06 PM