OMG the Ohio Dems just took a step to help Blackwell win!

[mod mom]

Why Chris Redfern as Chair of Ohio Dems is bad for Ohio.


Before you flame me, please hear me out.

I don't know Chris Redfern and I have heard he was willing to work with grassroots groups so I certainly don't hold bad feelings for him. this said, please read:

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

“A top legislative Democrat sticking up for the wife of Thomas W. Noe? Noe is a major GOP contributor who is under investigation for possibly illegal contributions to President Bush’s campaign and for an investment with the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation that has a reported shortfall of up to $13 million. His wife, Bernadette, is former chairwoman of the Lucas County GOP and ex-member of that county’s elections board. Even so, on April 11, Rep. Chris Redfern, the top Democrat in the Ohio House, sent a letter challenging Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s treatment of Mrs. Noe. Blackwell was preparing to remove Mrs. Noe and the other three members from the board for allegedly mismanaging several elections; the four quit before they could be fired. “Ms. Noe is a capable and reliable public servant, and I take her comments and concerns very seriously,” Redfern wrote, referring to a letter written three days earlier by Mrs. Noe questioning Blackwell’s probe. Why the ardent defense of Mrs. Noe by Redfern? It turns out the reason is blood, not politics: Redfern’s wife is Mrs. Noe’s cousin.

Ohiohonestelections.org is the source


What does this mean? Blackwell has a letter (I have seen a copy) from Redfern, the new Democratic Chair of the Ohio Dem Party indicating support for Bernadette Noe. Blackwell instigated an investigation on Ms Noe(actually the Lucas County BOE handling of the '04 election of which Bernadette Noe was Chairperson) which resulted in the discovery serious problems within the Lucas County BOE:

Blackwell, OH SOS Investigation of the Lucas County BOE

includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:

*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.

-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4

-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5

-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7

-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.

-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19

-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16

http://www.sos.state.oh.us:80/sos/ElectionsVoter/OhioEl...

The Noe Scandal will be a heated topic in the '06 election in Ohio. This scandal totally involved the Republicans and is the perfect example of how cronyism cost the state 50+ million dollars. The Republicans should get nailed for it. Next fall assuming Blackwell is the Rep candidate-(he does control the vote, you know,) he will be able to pin the Noe scandal toward the Dems by using this letter against the Dem Chair, while he, ordered this investigation.

This was a very stupid move for a person with political ambition. The Dems will pay for this stupid move. WE CAN NOT ALLOW BLACKWELL TO WIN!!!

[OzarkDem]

1. Redfern is on the GOP payroll

Nothing new, Ohio Dem Party still has leadership that will sell it out to the GOP at every opportunity. He's backed by thugs the Dems have been trying to get rid of for years.

Redfern thinks he can serve as ODP chair part time while doing is usual poor job as minority leader in the Ohio House.

If Dems want a key state to help them win in 2006, take Ohio off your list. Nothing good will come out of Ohio. Sorry.

At this point, I'd say the race to win DeWine's seat is in jeapordy also. Redfern, et al are people who are paid to make sure Dems don't win.

On edit, maybe we can take Redfern down with his Noe connections. There's always hope.

[mod mom]

2. that's what I told a depressed friend who called with the news of Redferns

victory. this is why I post it here, in hopes someone in authority will read this and push for change. I can't even begin to tell how depressing it is to live in Ohio. Our party needs some definite cleansing and help.

[philb]

3. Its pretty obvious that some of the "Dem leaders" in Ohio aren't

real populist progressives and seem to often promote the Republican cause
Have the Repubs successfully infiltrated the Dem leadership as a campaign tactic?

[OnTheOtherHand]

4. I'm lost

Do we have any idea what Bernadette Noe's letter to Blackwell said? Do we have any idea what Redfern was agreeing with, except that Noe was expressing "comments and concerns"?

For all I know, Bernadette Noe's letter basically said, "Hey, you're trying to pin all this stuff on us, but you (Blackwell) are responsible for a lot of it." In which case, Redfern was actually criticizing Blackwell, and Blackwell is not likely to pull out Redfern's letter to embarrass the Dems, is he?

Besides, the Coingate story has legs regardless of the Lucas County BoE investigation, doesn't it?

I don't think I know _anything_ about Chris Redfern. It seems to me that if we don't actually know that he is crooked, it isn't especially anti-Blackwell or otherwise progressive to assume that he is.

[mod mom]

6. No, the letter is from Redfern in support of Bernadette Noe,

[OnTheOtherHand]

7. yes, but in support of what?

Noe writes a letter to Blackwell expressing "comments and concerns," then Redfern writes a letter saying that he takes Noe's comments and concerns "very seriously." Before I can evaluate whether this tends to benefit Blackwell, I figure I have to know what the comments and concerns were. Right?

[mopinko]

5. but, but, but, ohio dems said bush won, so bush won

ohio dems said everything was on the up and up in ohio. so everything is fine, see, dems said.
brother. i assumed all along they were like the "nominal republicans" that we always had here in solid dem chicago. there were not enough pubs in the county to fill the required slots for election officials, so they just had a few folks who took a pub ballot in the primaries so they could get the jobs. wake up sheeple.
and you good grassroots dems there, throw these bastards out. all of them.

[mod mom]

8. Yes, and they told me, one of the most dedicated volunteers to the Kerry

campaign, that because I think th election in Ohio was "unfair" (come on now-who could dispute that one) I was a conspiracy theorist.

I have been a lifetime Dem, but the current Ohio Dem party is run by these people I don't agree with. The '04 election and response to the results, made me a progressive first. I am well educated, dedicated and have common sense. I want to support this party, and I do nationally, but our state is messed up. Maybe it's time for us to direct the movement.


:shrug:

[mopinko]

9. it's the suits vs the roots in a lot of places.

power corrupts, no matter your party. the folks on the bottom always have to keep the ones at the top honest.
good luck there.

[riqster]

10. And people want to know why I never joined the party????

Look at the Ohio Dem organization. They are closet reeps, every last one. Fuck 'em.