The progressive group that wasn't
Bob Casey, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, isn't your typical Democrat -- pro-gun, pro-death penalty, antiabortion -- but he was running against a Republican, Rick Santorum, who made him look positively liberal by comparison.
Still, there was ample room for anyone who wished to attack Casey from the left -- and there were plenty who did. Like the people behind the Progressive Policy Council, a self-described nonprofit organization that popped up just before the election to denounce Casey's conservative stances. But the group, which appeared to have no signs of actual life other than mailers sent out attacking Casey, may not have been as "progressive" as advertised: It's represented by the former deputy general counsel to President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, who has also worked for the Dole campaign and the Republican National Committee.
It wasn't the only attempt by Republicans to hit Casey from the left. The race's Green Party candidate was funded entirely by donors who normally support Republicans.
Case of the vanished polling place
Most people -- well, most people other than Ann Coulter -- try to make sure they're voting in their assigned polling place. But voters in several states had their polling place changed just before the election.
At least, that's what the phone calls told them. Voters in New York, New Mexico and Virginia were told by anonymous callers that their polling places were changed and they were given erroneous directions to new polling places that didn't exist. In New Mexico, at least one call giving incorrect information about a polling place was actually traced back to the local Republican Party. Republicans claimed it was a mistake, but in response the state's Democrats unsuccessfully petitioned a judge to enjoin the state GOP from calling any more Democrats at all.
And last, but not least -- vigilantes
On Election Day, a posse of three men in Tucson, Ariz., proved that the Wild West still lives.
The group, which was three strong, and allegedly composed of two anti-immigration activists, Russ Dove and Roy Warden, carried a camcorder, a clipboard -- on which, they said, was information about a proposed law to make English the state's official language -- and a gun. While one man would approach a voter, holding the clipboard, another would follow, pointing the video camera at them. The third would stand behind, holding his hand to the gun at his hip in what activists on the other side called classic voter intimidation tactics in a precinct one local paper had previously declared the bellwether of the area's Hispanic vote.
It's not the first time Dove and Warden have been accused of this type of act. Dove, who is a convicted felon and former militia member, patrolled Arizona's polls in 2004 as well, and Warden has publicly burned a Mexican flag (for which he was charged with arson) and acknowledged that he sought a concealed-carry permit for a gun, partly in hopes of enticing a local police officer to attack him and force Warden to use deadly force in self-defense.
This story has been corrected since it was first published.
About the writer
Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.
Story finder (3 ways to search Salon)
Salon Directory (browse by topic)
