Some breaking news to report for all those democracy and justice lovers out there. For those that remember, about 2 months ago I posted some info on a story about a young woman who was accosted in California by 15 or so of Schwarzenegger's paid, out of state signature gatherers. Since that time, that same young teacher and I have been building a case against these people and the grossly corrupt California special election system.
We are happy to report we released our evidence today, and have officially called on the Secretary of State, with the help of Assemblyman Mark Leno, to open an investigation into the actions of these petition gatherers and the companies that hire them. We've got taped recordings, testimonials, and a whole lot more. Here's the link to the original posting on this issue a few months back:
Arnold cronies and scare tactics
And, here's the press release sent out today, and the executive summary of our case:
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 9 2005
WOMEN, ASSEMBLYMAN, REQUEST INVESTIGATION OF GOVERNOR'S PETITIONERS BY SECRETARY OF STATE. EVIDENCE SUBMITTED DETAILS ELECTION LAW VIOLATIONS, PHYSICAL INTIMIDATION, VERBAL ABUSE, AND THREATS
Assemblyman Mark Leno announces support for investigation. Calls allegations "extremely disturbing"
(CA) - A group of four women submitted a request for an investigation by the Secretary of State today into apparent election law violations and the aggressive, intimidating, and abusive tactics of paid out of state petitioners. The petitioners in question were hired and paid by companies such as National Petition Management (who also paid out of state petitioners to work on the Recall of Gray Davis), who has received millions of dollars in funding for this purpose from Citizens to Save California, a Schwarzenegger-supported and funded group.
The women's case consists of four testimonials detailing their personal experiences with these petitioners across California, including Santa Rosa, multiple cities in Contra Costa County, and Los Angeles. The women's claims, particularly in the case of teacher Erica Rodriguez, are supported by extensive tape recordings of conversations with and between the petition gatherers themselves. Apparent illegal activities include: continual and wildly inaccurate explanations of the Governor’s initiatives to the public; petitioners claiming to be volunteers when in reality they were highly paid; and petitioners registering new voters by claiming to be residents of California when in fact they were not. Further, the four testimonials share disturbing similarities in terms of the verbal abuse and assault, physical intimidation (even physical contact), and threats each suffered (commonly by a group of men).
"The Governor's aggressive support of an $80 million special election that would threaten teachers' job security and weaken the quality of our educational system was bad enough," said Erica Rodriguez, special education teacher. "But after being verbally assaulted and physically intimidated by 15 of the Governor's petitioners, each being highly paid to do so, I had had enough. I feel its my responsibility to share these experiences with as many people as possible and help get the truth out regarding the level of corruption this `special election' is breeding as well as the illegal and unethical tactics being practiced by these men."
Assemblyman Mark Leno announced his support for an investigation today as well, and plans to contact the Secretary of State's office personally to encourage action on this issue. Earlier today, Leno remarked, "Mrs. Rodriguez's allegations are extremely disturbing and fully deserving of an investigation. Our initiative process is too important to possibly be abused in the ways Mrs. Rodriquez has documented."
"We'd like to ask the Governor why he's raising record sums of special interest money in Florida and Texas to pay out of state petitioners, some of who are felons, to attack teachers and nurses here at home?" said Zack Kaldveer, Publicist. "The Governor should drop this $80 million dollar "special election", and focus on the real problems facing our state, like our out of control budget deficit, schools shutting down, and students being denied access to college."
"Common Cause has increasingly been concerned about paid petition gatherers who corrupt the initiative process when they misrepresent initiatives or themselves to Californian voters," said Kathay Feng, Executive Director, Common Cause. "We are monitoring this case closely."
Among the actions the Secretary of State's office is being asked to take are: a 5% count of all signatures submitted to be undertaken by the voter registrar of every county; investigate the background, criminal records, and the apparent illegal actions of the petition gatherers in question; and finally, to investigate and prosecute any companies responsible for illegally hiring these out of state, law breaking petitioners.
"My faith in California's special election process was deeply shaken after the physical intimidation and slurs I was subjected to at the hands of the Governor's signature gatherers," said Lee Hazer, eyewitness. "These men were grossly misrepresenting the content of the Governor's intiatives to the public, initiatives that would hurt teachers and their students. But then again, why would people from Michigan, particularly men that behave like this, care one bit about the long-term health of our state's educational system and the children it serves?"