Jason Leopold: Mark “Thor” Hearne, Bush Operative Pushes Voter-ID Law

[L. Coyote]

Bush Operative Pushes Voter-ID Law
Jason Leopold - the Public Record - May 14, 2008 - http://www.pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=9


A senior legal adviser to the Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection campaign is working behind the scenes to help enact a Missouri state constitutional amendment that critics say would suppress the vote in the key battleground state this November by requiring voters to show proof of citizenship.

Mark “Thor” Hearne, Bush-Cheney’s national counsel in 2004 and now a partner in the St. Louis, Missouri, firm of Lathrop & Gage, has been collaborating with Missouri’s Republican state Rep. Stanley Cox, the sponsor of the constitutional amendment, Cox’s office confirmed this week.

For years, Hearne has been a leading Republican figure demanding stricter voter-identification laws and popularizing claims about widespread voter fraud, although many election experts dismiss such alarms as hyperbole.

During the 2004 campaign, Hearne reportedly worked with White House political adviser Karl Rove on “voter fraud” issues and spearheaded GOP efforts to challenge voter-registration drives by pro-Democratic groups.

............

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Mark F. "Thor" Hearne & election fraud timeline

1976 - Hearne ... a page at both the national and Missouri GOP convention
1980 and 1984 - Hearne was an alternate at the Missouri GOP Party convention
1986 and 1987 - Hearne worked for the Reagan administration... a law clerk and attorney
2000 - Counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign ... an operative in the so-called "Brooks Brothers" riot that stopped the Florida recount ... a Republican election observer in Broward County
2002 - ... Republican lawyer who led the Missouri legislative redistricting fight
2004 – Counsel to Bush-Cheney re-election campaign
3/21/05 – Hearne shows up masquerading as a "non-partisan voting rights activist" ...newly created American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR)
...
5/2/07 – Hearne admits that he hired powerful GOP connected attorney William Mateja to intervene in the DOJ investigation of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt
2007 – All traces of Hearne's connection to the ACVR and Free Enterprise Coalition vanish from the internet

FROM: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1159656&mesg_id=1159656

[L. Coyote]

1. Republican Party operative Mark (Thor) Hearne played a behind-the-scenes role

The Scales Of Justice
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
May 31, 2007 - http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070531nj1.htm

In the closing weeks of Missouri's tight 2006 U.S. Senate race, the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., took the unusual step of revealing that his office's investigation into possible state government contracting abuses in Missouri had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt.

Separately, less than a week before Election Day, the interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., brought voting-fraud charges against four employees of the activist group ACORN, which registers low-income people who typically vote for Democratic candidates. ...

... Mark (Thor) Hearne, a Republican Party operative who had served as national election counsel for the 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and played a behind-the-scenes role in both cases. Hearne's role provides a window into how a Republican activist was pushing Bush administration officials -- and perhaps in some cases working in concert with them -- to use the Justice Department for partisan purposes. ...

[L. Coyote]

2. St. Louis lawyer figures prominently in vote fraud, U.S. attorneys probes

St. Louis lawyer figures prominently in vote fraud, U.S. attorneys probes
By Jo Mannies - 06/06/2007 - http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/7BBCCF78AAFD12C4862572F2001372AB?OpenDocument


Hearne: "I have not had any discussions with the White House, the Justice Department or anyone else concerning Todd Graves' role as a U.S. attorney," ... "I never had any communications with anyone at the White House or Justice Department about these U.S. attorneys."

Hearne and Graves said ... they had never spoken to each other about vote-fraud matters, or anything else while Graves was U.S. attorney ... Graves said he had met Hearne only once — in 1988 ...

In November 2000, it was Hearne who led the national Republican legal team that blocked a Democratic effort in Missouri to keep the polls open an extra three hours. ...

"Thor Hearne's job when he wakes up every day is to find new ways to suppress voters in this country," said Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti. ...

[L. Coyote]

3. TPM, Mrs Panstreppon's Blog, June 13: Hearne "has deleted all references to the ACVR.."

Mark "Thor" Ferlund Hearne II, American Center for Voting Rights Director and General Counsel
mrs panstreppon - Jun 13, 2007 - http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/mrs_panstreppon/2007/jun/13/mark_thor_ferlund_hearne_ii_american_center_for_voting_rights_director_and_general_counsel


Mark "Thor" Hearne, a GOP operative, doesn't want anyone to know he is a director of and general counsel to the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) and its affiliate, the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund (ACVR-LF).

Hearne, an attorney with the St Louis firm of Lathrop & Gage, has deleted all references to the ACVR ... someone from Lathrop & Gage deleted all references to the ACVR on Hearne's Wikipedia entry although the references have since been restored.

... 6/6/07 St Louis Dispatch - http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/misso... - "St. Louis lawyer figures prominently in vote fraud, U.S. attorneys probes"

... Web-based liberal blog sites ... several months ago began pointing to his ties to Blunt and .. fired U.S. attorneys — Bud Cummins of Arkansas ...

... the American Center for Voting Rights website was suddenly taken down a few months ago ...

On 11/7/06, Mark F. "Thor" Hearne appeared on C-Span's Washington Journal as Counsel for the American Center for Voting Rights.

On 12/7/06, Hearne, testifying as Thor Hearne, identified himself to US Election Assistance Commission (EAC)as "counsel to the American Center for Voting Rights - Legislative Fund."

[L. Coyote]

4. Alex N. Vogel's Role: American Center for Voting Rights De Facto Executive Director

GOOD OLD follow the money blogging.

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mrs panstreppon's Blog
Alex N. Vogel, American Center for Voting Rights De Facto Executive Director
http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/mrs_panstreppon/2007/jun/16/alex_vogel_american_center_for_voting_rights_de_facto_executive_director

With so much media attention focused on Mark "Thor" Hearne, Alex Vogel's role in the operations of the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) is being overlooked. As ACVR Executive Director and Free Enterprise Coalition representative, Alex Vogel was in a position to coordinate a campaign to disenfranchise Democratic voters and generate support for restrictive voting laws by discrediting ACORN and other organizations conducting voter registration drives.

I called Alex Vogel the de facto ACVR executive director because it was Vogel's lobbying firm, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti (MVC), rather than Vogel himself, that was paid $75,000 in 2005 to be the ACVR executive director, according to the 2005 ACVR 990.

The ACVR also paid $72,687 to Alex Vogel's law firm, Holtzman Vogel PLLC, in 2005.

The only evidence of Alex Vogel's association with the Free Enterprise Coalition is a reference to it in a 12/30/05 Free Press article by Bob Fitzrakis, "Fake voting rights activists and groups linked to White House" ....

the ACVR's Ohio Report. The Ohio Report was submitted to Bob Ney's Government Administration Committee and the Department of Justice in March 2005 as evidence of extensive Democratic voter fraud and voter intimidation. The original 15-page complaint filed by Rubick and Koralewski was attached as an exhibit to the report.

The Ohio Report is online here (PDF http://web.archive.org/web/20060209215847/www.ac4vr.com/reports/032405/OhioElectionReport.pdf). The Ohio Report exhibits can be downloaded here (http://web.archive.org/web/20050324102250/http://www.ac4vr.com ).

The problem is that much of the so-called evidence in the Ohio Report was manufactured. Was it manufactured at the direction of Alex Vogel?

[L. Coyote]

5. BRADBLOG SPECIAL COVERAGE: Hearne's "American Center for Voting Rights" GOP "Voter Fraud" Scam

Thor Hearne's "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR) GOP "Voter Fraud" Scam
http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=4418

KEY BRAD BLOG ARTICLES IN THE SERIES SO FAR

03/22/05: The First Report Concerning the "American Center for Voting Rights" - http://www.bradblog.com/?p=1276
Group shows up to testify at phony hearings on "Ohio Election Irregularities" held by House Administrative Comm. Chair Bob Ney (R-OH)

03/22/05: New 'Non-Partisan' 'Voting Rights' Org Appears Little More than Republican Front Group! - http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001276.htm

=== 50 ARTICLES ===

[L. Coyote]

6. SLATE: Fraudulent Fraud Squad - The incredible, disappearing American Center for Voting Rights

The Fraudulent Fraud Squad - The incredible, disappearing American Center for Voting Rights.
By Richard L. Hasen - May 18, 2007
http://www.slate.com/id/2166589


... ACVR—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark "Thor" Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. Hearne won't speak to the press about ACVR's demise. No other group has taken up the "voter fraud" mantra.

The death of ACVR says a lot about the Republican strategy of raising voter fraud as a crisis in American elections. Presidential adviser Karl Rove and his allies, who have been ghostbusting illusory dead and fictional voters since the contested 2000 election, apparently mounted a two-pronged attack ...

[L. Coyote]

7. ACVR's OHIO Report, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH, Prisoner No. 28882-016), & Jive F. Turkey, Sr.

OHIO ELECTION ACTIVITIES AND OBSERVATIONS
Report to the United States House of Representatives
Committee on House Administration, Representative Robert W. Ney, Chairman
Submitted by The American Center for Voting Rights, March 21, 2005
http://web.archive.org/web/20060209215847/www.ac4vr.com/reports/032405/OhioElectionReport.pdf


Contributors (aka Felonious Bob's Jive Turkey List):
Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, II, William M. Todd, Mary C. Mertz, James E. Burke, Patrick F. Fischer, R. Patrick DeWine, Charles H. Gerhardt, III, Drew M. Hicks, Douglas G. Haynam, Mark R. Weaver, Mark Landes, Jeffrey Stankunas, Jack Morrison, Jr., Thomas M. Saxer, Thomas R. Houlihan, Tim A. Greenwood, James P. Silk, Jr.

The American Center for Voting Rights, in association with various law firms and legal
counsel involved in the conduct of the Ohio presidential election, has assembled this report of
events that occurred during the 2004 election. This investigation found the following:

Third party organizations, especially ACT, ACORN, and NAACP engaged in a
coordinated “Get Out The Vote” effort. A significant component of this effort appears to be
registering individuals who would cast ballots for the candidate supported by these
organizations. This voter registration effort was not limited to registration of legal voters but,
criminal investigations and news reports suggest, that this voter registration effort also involved
the registration of thousands of fictional voters such as the, now infamous, Jive F. Turkey, Sr.,
Dick Tracy and Mary Poppins. Those individuals registering these fictional voters were
reportedly paid not just money to do so but were, in at least one instance, paid in crack cocaine.

The fraudulent voter registrations, however, appear to be only part of the effort of these
organizations to influence the election. There was an apparently coordinated national litigation
strategy to manipulate election laws in battleground states and, specifically, to eliminate the
provisions of election law that would prevent vote fraud. ....

[L. Coyote]

8. Hearne Created In-State "Voter Fraud" Front Group, Funded It With ACVR Dollars, Ran It with Fee Offi

Hearne Created In-State "Voter Fraud" Front Group, Funded It With ACVR Dollars, Ran It with Fee Office Figure
Howard Beale - 06/13/2007 - http://www.firedupmissouri.com/hearne_acvr_cefm_lott_linked


... In February 2003, Thor Hearne filed paperwork with Missouri's Secretary of State to create a non-profit corporation called Center for Research of Ethics in Public Policy and the Free Market ... Hearne --addressed at the St. Louis office of his Lathrop & Gage law firm-- is the registered agent ...

... the Center for Ethics and the Free Market ... tracks very closely with the "voter fraud" and "voter registration fraud" fearmongering that had been undertaken nationally by the American Center for Voting Rights. In June 2004, just months in advance of a presidential-year general election, the Center for Ethics and the Free Market issued a report that purportedly pointed to "concerns" with Missouri voter registration efforts undertaken by progressive groups like America Coming Together and Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition. That report included language intended to inflate the potential for "voter fraud" --language that has become familiar via various national voter suppression efforts ...

... the only grant awarded by ACVR in that year was written in the amount of $28,000 and given to the Center for Ethics and the Free Market. It's worth noting that on the same IRS 990 form, ACVR reports having paid $122,870 to Thor Hearne's law firm, Lathrop & Gage for "Program/Legal Services."

... Center for Ethics and the Free Market ... was run by known GOP consultants ... Woody Cozad and Rich McClure, who served as right-hand advisors to GOP governors Kit Bond and John Ashcroft ... daily business and operation ... by employees of prominent GOP consulting firm ... consultant to the Missouri Republican Party and Gov. Matt Blunt ... running the nuts and bolts financial and IRS reporting ... Garrett Lott ... at the center of the Matt Blunt administration's political operation and his pay-to-play fee office scheme ... a paid consultant to high-profile campaigns ... Blunt and Jim Talent ...

... Lott has also been linked to committees through which disgraced DC GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff funneled cash ... the recipient of a patronage-plum fee office himself, but receives income in the form of revenue kicked up by eleven other fee offices to a management company that he runs. Those management companies and their corporate shells were set up by attorneys at the firm of Lathrop & Gage ...

... Hearne will explain this as some irrelevant coincidence. He, like the governor and every other GOP blogger and apologist, has done everything possible to keep the "voter fraud" scheme, the U.S. Attorney firings story, and the Blunt fee office controversy a million miles apart from one another. With what we know now about the snug fit with Thor Hearne and Garrett Lott and their interlocking roles with several disparate pieces of the puzzle, the coincidence theory has gone from unlikely to implausible.

[L. Coyote]

9. Did "Voter Fraud" Charlatan Thor Hearne Urge White House to Can Cummins?

Did "Voter Fraud" Charlatan Thor Hearne Urge White House to Can Cummins?

Did "Voter Fraud" Charlatan Thor Hearne Urge White House to Can Cummins?
Howard Beale - 04/19/2007 - http://www.firedupmissouri.com/cummins_hearne_doj_purge

In early 2005 the Fired Up Missouri community was instrumental in figuring out and reporting on the intricate web of corporate shell LLCs used by the Blunt Administration to effectuate its fee office money funnelling scheme. One of the key facts from those posts was the central involvement of the law firm of Lathrop & Gage in the design and construction of fee office management company entities.

Now some are speculating that relationships between a key Lathrop & Gage attorney and the Bush White House may have led to the firing of U.S. Attorney whose investigation might have implicated Lathrop & Gage in a government corruption scheme.

Observers are focusing on Mark "Thor" Hearne, who is not only a Lathrop & Gage partner, but has also been one of the most (if not the most) important cogs in the legal machine created by the Republican Party to gain advantage by advancing specious claims of widespread voter fraud ....

... Few people would have been as well-positioned as Hearne to intervene with the Department of Justice and help scuttle the investigation into Governor Matt Blunt ... loyal GOP lawyers --whether inside federal government or helping on the outside-- are a sizable but insular bunch. They work together to subjugate the ordinary process and the administration of justice to political need. Loyalty is the currency of the kingdom; truth or rule of law are matters of mere inconvenience ... here in Missouri, we had administration operatives changing DOJ policy and personnel to reflect the specific GOP needs on the ground ...

[n2doc]

10. I'm Thor tired of all these idiots with fratboy names

Buzzy, Scooter, Cookie, Thor.... I feel like I'm watching a group of 8 year olds....

[L. Coyote]

11. Reminds me of the mafia. Using code names is a good criminal tactic!

Hard to make a case against "Leftie" if there is noone actually named Leftie.

What they gonna do, arrest all the lefties?