Curiously Certain: Barnes Campaign Treasurer Voted In Four GOP Primaries Before August 7th
Posted on September 25, 2008 at 4:47 pmAn interesting email landed yesterday afternoon in the inboxes of the seven GOP Senate Committee Chairs headlining a fundraiser for uprooted incumbent Democratic Senator Rosalind Kurita.
The sender, Elizabeth Klein, who identifies herself in the email as legal assistant and campaign treasurer to Tim Barnes, the Democratic nominee in state Senate District 22, writes in a very unfavorable tone towards the seven GOP Senators for their show of solidarity with Kurita.
[Senator Rosalind Kurita] has lied, cheated, threatened, manipulated and forced her way through her political career with unbelievable gall and arrogance—she has no known morals or ethical boundaries regarding her treatment of people—and she has, seemingly, gone out of her way to slander and degrade the good name of her opponent when she didn’t accomplish her goal of winning by whatever means necessary, however illegal.
So, in America we don’t steal an election, huh? Well Rosalind Kurita should know—she certainly tried to do it herself and because of her illegal actions was unsuccessful.
I am Elisabeth D. Klein. I have been legal assistant to Tim Barnes for the past seven years. I am also his political treasurer. And I am a Republican.
And indeed, she is a Republican. According to records obtained from the Montgomery County Election Commission, Tim Barnes legal assistant for seven years, Elizabeth D. Klein, voted in no fewer than four Republican primaries dating back to the year 2000. Her first venture into the Democratic primary since that time was this August.
A bona fide Republican, if you will.
Of course, the main argument that her boss, Tim Barnes, made in contesting Rosalind Kurita’s win in the August 7th primary was that there was a coordinated effort to get Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary.
As evidence of the GOP’s success in this conspiracy, numbers were distributed by the Barnes campaign to show that folks normally voting in Republican primaries voted in August in the 22nd state Senate District primary in what they saw as extraordinary numbers.
The assumption was that these historically Republican voters who chose to vote in a Democratic Party primary this year were doing so to vote for Kurita as part of a coordinated effort by Republicans. An unprovable assumption, of course, but one that was accepted at face value.
It now seems that at least one of those “Republican” statistics was, in fact, a vote for Tim Barnes.
When reached for comment, Klein did not see any inconsistency in the arguments Barnes made in contesting his primary defeat and her own voting history.
“It’s not that we didn’t want Republicans voting in the primary,” explained Klein. “We just didn’t want, and state law is against, the Republican Party interfering actively in the primary, telling people who to vote for. We wanted people to vote their conscience.”
Tim Barnes in speaking with Post Politics echoed the words of his campaign treasurer.
“The amount of Republican participation in the primary was really more of a supporting argument based on the concerted effort by party leaders,” stated Barnes.
“I don’t have a problem with individuals switching primaries based on their personal choices, personal reasons. I certainly had Republican friends voting for me,” Barnes explained. “At issue here was the concerted effort by party leaders, not the choice of individual voters.”
Comments
18 Responses to “Curiously Certain: Barnes Campaign Treasurer Voted In Four GOP Primaries Before August 7th”
Is it because Kurita doesn’t seem to be a Blue Dog that Klein feels compelled to tear her up?
Good reporting Klondike. So now it is transparent. If Republicans voted for Kurita, that’s bad. If they voted for Barnes, that’s OK.
Oh holy moley… This certainly changes things.
- Matthew
Oh, so it was ok for Republicans to participate in the Democratic primary as long as they were the right Republicans.
What a load of crap. I’ve never heard an argument about individual Republicans. It’s always been an argument about Ramsey making a concerted effort to to take the Democratic Primary. Face it. Ros and Ramesy cheated. They got poppped. And now they’re desperate to hold on to the seat.
Barnes explained. “At issue here was the concerted effort by party leaders, not the choice of individual voters.”
Isn’t that what the Democratic EC did????? When I checked Kurita won the “Certified” election.
Korita is certifiable alright.
What would ACK do without theis perpetial non story. Lets spell this out, in nice big letters: the issue was not INDIVIDUAL REPUBLICANS, kay? The issue was CONCERTED, PLANNED effort. To say nothing about the documented irregularities…Rosalind BROKE THE LAW….everyone get that?
So what? Every ad, every speech by a candidate is a concerted, planned effort by the candidate and political leaders to get votes, anybody’s vote.
Any excuse is okay I guess, as long as the party gets the desired result. God forbid the actual VOTERS have any say in things. (And by “the party”, I mean BOTH sides.)
I think the fact that these threads are ridiculously top-heavy with complaints from Republicans about the workings of a Democratic primary sort of proves Barnes and the TNDP right.
Get real. Ramsey raised money for Kurita. It was in the paper. He flooded Republicans into the Democratic primary. And let’s not forget that Kurita broke the law when she went into a polling place on election day. She’s says she went to use the bathroom. And how many innocent people are sitting in jail right now? Ramsey and Kurita have been running a scam on this election for two years. I’m glad they got busted. I just hope their slick DC lawyers can’t get them out of it.
And what would the Republicans do in this situation? Oh, wait, we don’t have to wonder. It’s REPUBLICAN LAWYERS that are trying to cover up this scam.
[...] Get real. Ramsey… [...]
Yeah, this story for ACK is like Waller Landsen for Matt Pulle and the Copeland Cap for Bill Hobbs. Really, ACK, the best thing about your blog used to be the largely netural nature of the news you agregated. If you’re just going to be an echo chamber for Republican nonsense, fine, but say so and openly admit it.
ScottJ - you can’t be serious…the content, not to mention most ever headline, is in no way Republican leaning. I’d venture to say most is left leaning. Go sit in your tower.
Will it ever end?
There is not, nor has there ever been, an allegation that a single illegal vote was cast in that primary. No dead voters, no stuffed ballot boxes, no jimmied voting machines, no inverted vote totals. Is there anyone who can seriously contend that Kurita changed 19 votes from her opponents camp into her own when she went to pee? The voters went to the polls, they voted in a perfectly legal and appropriate way, and my party — the Democratic Party — just stole the election from the rightful winner. Democarts (with a little “d” or a big “D”) ought to believe that the person with the most votes wins. I have neve before ben ashamed of my party, but I am today. I expect election stealing from the GOP; they have dne it over and over again. How Democrats could do something like this is beyond my comprehension. I am sick at heart about it.
So what if Republicans voted in the Democratic primary? We have an open primary system. If the TNDP doesn’t like it, change the law. Don’t go overturning elections for no good reason.