The GOP's dirty deeds of 2006
Salon's guide to robo-calls, push polls, vigilantes and other murky dealings from this year's elections.
By Alex Koppelman and Lauren Shell
Read more: Politics, News, Virginia, Ohio, 2006 Elections, Alex Koppelman
Nov. 21, 2006 | Before the 2006 midterm election, you couldn't escape the predictions of Election Day disaster: voting machine meltdowns, interminable lines, endless recounts. But the control of both houses of Congress was decided without interference from Diebold or hanging chads, so few (outside of Florida's 13th Congressional District) are suffering flashbacks of 2000 and 2004.
But while this year might not have included any repeats of Palm Beach County or Ohio, that doesn't mean the midterm elections were squeaky clean. This November there were some old-school dirty tricks that had nothing to do with voting machines or secretaries of state. An unscientific sample seems to show that most were the product of a party that was desperate for something, anything, that would help it protect its doomed congressional majorities. The bulk of this year's murky dealings took place in those tightly contested races -- from the battle for Virginia's Senate seat to House races in Illinois, New York and Connecticut -- that were crucial to control of Congress.
Fortunately, politicians in several states and the U.S. Senate are taking steps to criminalize some of the more heinous tricks played this year. Before any of the bad deeds from this election are forgotten, here's Salon's Cheat Sheet -- our top 10 list of dirt.
In Maryland, Republicans turn Democrat -- and truck in homeless men to spread the word
In some states, like deep-blue Maryland, being a Republican is a political liability. Still, it's not often that you see Maryland's top Republican candidates actually pretending to be Democrats -- but that's exactly what Gov. Bob Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who was running for the state's open Senate seat, did.
A flier distributed in majority black Prince George's County, and unsubtly hued red, black and green, featured three prominent black Democrats -- Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman and former head of the NAACP; Wayne K. Curry, the former county executive in Prince George's County; and Jack B. Johnson, the current Prince George's county executive -- stating that each endorsed Steele for the U.S. Senate and Ehrlich for governor. In reality, none of them had endorsed Ehrlich, and only Curry had endorsed Steele. On the back of the flier was a "Democratic Sample Ballot" that endorsed Ehrlich for governor and Steele for Senate.
The men who were passing out the deceptive fliers were homeless, and had been trucked in from Philadelphia specially for the event with the promise of three meals and $100 cash in exchange for one Election Day's work.
In Virginia, voter intimidation
It's not illegal to be registered to vote in two places, as long as you don't vote in both. But that's not what Timothy Daly, of Clarendon, Va., was told. Daly got a message on his answering machine that told him that the nonexistent "Virginia Elections Commission" had "determined you are registered in New York to vote."
"Therefore," the message said, "you will not be allowed to cast your vote." It ended by promising Daly, who has voted in Virginia since 1998, that if he did come to vote, he would "be charged criminally."
Daly wasn't the only Virginia resident to receive such a message; enough similar calls were made, in fact, that the FBI has opened an investigation into the allegations. It's not yet known who was behind the calls, but it seems likely they would have taken an organized effort, or at the very least no small investment of time -- whoever called Daly and the other victims of the scam would have had to comb through voter registration data to find voters registered in multiple states. In the end, Democrat Jim Webb defeated incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen by just over 7,200 votes.
The Social Security Administration gets into the act
Illinois Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth, running for the open seat that once belonged to Henry Hyde, wanted to extend Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants. At least, that's what one mailer to district residents said -- and there was no reason to doubt it. After all, it was from the Social Security Administration. The mailer came in a yellow-brown envelope whose front bore the image of an eagle and the words "Notice: Social Security Benefit Change Proposal." To be fair, the letter did acknowledge its source -- the National Republican Congressional Committee -- at the bottom of the page and again on the back of the envelope, where the return address listed "Social Security Benefits Proposal c/o National Republican Congressional Committee." But some of Duckworth's supporters have alleged that the mailing was more than just deceptive: It could, they say, be considered mail fraud for seemingly imitating mail from an official government agency without the disclosure required of any non-governmental entity sending out such a letter. On Election Day, Republican Peter Roskam beat Duckworth by less than 5,000 votes.