Rep. Heather Wilson Accused of Felony Vote-Buying in NM; Reporter Quits After Story Scrubbed

[BradBlog]

Rep. Heather Wilson Accused of Felony Vote-Buying in New Mexico; Reporter Quits After News Director Scrubs Story
Republican Delegate Convention Attendees Paid by Wilson Senate Campaign, According to Report Sourced by Three Eye-Witnesses, Removed from Website After Complaints to Station by Wilson
Memo From News Director to Reporter: 'Don't you think if there was anything to it the bloggers would have picked this up?'

The short version, however: New Mexico's ABC field producer and KKOB afternoon drive news reporter, Laura MacCallum, a 32-year news veteran, has quit her job after her story on an alleged vote-buying scheme by Republican Rep. Heather Wilson at the recent delegate nominating convention in Bernalillo County, New Mexico was scrubbed from her station's website by the News Director after allegedly pressure from Wilson.

The sitting Congresswoman is angling for an upgrade, as she hopes to be the state's Republican nominee to fill the Senate seat being vacated by outgoing Republican Pete Domenici. MacCallum's report, sourced by at least three different people, including herself, said that voters showed up to the delegate convention and claimed they were being were "paid $35-an-hour (for two hours)" by Wilson's senate campaign and the congressional campaign of Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, "and that the campaigns had also paid their $30 registration fees."

Such a scheme, if true, would be a fourth-degree felony, according to New Mexico law. But as remarkable as those charges are, even if having the ring of truth, given what we already know about Wilson, the response, including the memo from KKOB News Director Pat Allen to MacCallum, is almost as remarkable...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5766

[babylonsister]

1. This is huge! Rec'd! nt

[rpannier]

55. You need a picture of that assclown steve ducey (whatever the f**k his name is) from faux

Throwing his hands in the air to make that statement really colorful

Anchor:
Ducey: Obama attented a Madrassa??! THIS IS HUGE!

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Nail her to the wall

Fifth rec.

[Raster]

63. The only good rethuglican is one in prison.

[Wiley50]

3. Sorry Brad, I didn't know you were gonna post this here

posted at 10:04 cst

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2960679

16 minutes before you

It's your story anyway

On edit: I have alerted on my own thread and asked the mods to combine my thread with yours. It already had 6 or 8 replies.
PS- Hope you are doing well, my friend

[BradBlog]

17. No worries...

...I had actually posted it a bit earlier in GD:Primaries, and folks told me I should post it over here since it'd get buried amongst the Primary noise. In any case, the important thing is that folks here about this, because at first glance, it looks pretty frickin' stunning.

I suspect the News Director over there is gonna eat his words pretty soon :-)

[puebloknot]

47. I live in New Mexico. I'm going to call him! Thanks!

Heather Wilson is a cancer wanting to take the place of another old cancer we've had to endure for lo, these many years!

Glad you're on it!

[TygrBright]

4. There's a reason she's known here in NM as Heather "Skanky Cow" Wilson...

...so none of us are terribly surprised.

cynically,
Bright

[Truth2Tell]

5. Here's the link to the story

by Dennis Domrzalski:

http://f-brilliant.blogspot.com/2008/03/kkob-radio-news-anchor-laura-maccallum.html

[EFerrari]

6. Vote buying and selling in NM is not remarkable.

There are a lot of poor people there and actual "brokers" who manage these transactions among these poorest citizens.

[Warpy]

7. Funny, I did a search and didn't find anything about wholesale

buying of poor folks' votes here in NM. However, I did find this:

“This is probably the biggest ward in the city, by far. Normally we have between 9 and 15 people show up,” Cargo said. “And so along comes the convention on Sunday and 59 people show up.”

Cargo began passing around a signup sheet. “I said ‘I’m going to pass around notebook and would like to have you write down your names and address and phone number so I can call you and put you to work for the party,’” Cargo said. “Then one gal got up and said, ‘We aren’t working for any party; we’re here only this one time and we won’t be back.’”

Cargo said that over the course of the meeting many of the participants said they were from Wilson’s senate campaign and from Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White’s congressional campaign. Several people told him they were being paid $35-an-hour (for two hours) by their campaigns and that the campaigns had also paid their $30 registration fees.

“I told them that this was known as vote buying, that it was illegal and that it was fourth-degree felony,” Cargo said. “I said, ‘You can’t buy votes. We’re not in Chicago or St. Louis.’ They just blinked and looked at me. They didn’t see anything wrong with it.”

http://f-brilliant.blogspot.com/2008/03/kkob-radio-news-anchor-laura-maccallum.html

This story's now got legs. It's all over the blogosphere. This isn't business as usual for New Mexico.

[EFerrari]

8. Well, imo, it is.

My brain won't give me the Spanish word. But they've actually coined a word for the vote brokers in the state. I first read about it about two years ago after I started trying to learn something about election fraud.

Maybe someone who is more knowledgeable can conjure it up. The practice isn't remarkable but maybe the coverage is.

Eta: It's as a distinct a term as "partera" which means "midwife". I'm going to go look at so called "voter fraud" news archives because iirc, that's how it was presented when I read about it.

[EFerrari]

19. I'm just going to have to call someone local because

it's just the kind of thing that goes right under the radar and it's not searchable because it's a Spanish word.

I read about it while looking for election news about two years ago and it was amazing to me because I didn't know such a practice existed.

But the story was about a lady being busted for brokering votes. And, there was a specific term for her -- like "coyote" or "partera" or "agenta" or "compradora" but it wasn't any of those.

The story wasn't grinding an axe but just more or less reporting that that lady got busted for that offense as if the local readers would know what that meant. (And, it was just one of many I posted that day so, damn, I didn't think to save it in any way.) It's in the ERD threads somewhere. Maybe if I call the ACLU or the SOS and ask, "what do you call those people who broker votes?", they can give me the term.

I remember it very well because I'd never imagined that your job could be buying and selling votes.

[ConsAreLiars]

21. "lanzadera" ?

You made me curious, so I did a search. No reference to New Mexico (Maybe the anthropologists and such will eventually turn their eyes in this direction for examples of oligopolistic misdeeds).

From: http://www.stanford.edu/~albertod/docs/Bellagio_Schaffer_Schedler.pdf :
The practice, called “the caterpillar” in Russia, and “lanzadera” (Spanish for
“shuttle”) in the Philippines, was also common in 19th century Australia and United States
where it was known as the “Tasmanian dodge” (Borisova 2000; Schaffer 2002b).

[EFerrari]

22. I don't think so. It doesn't ring a bell.

But, from reading the story, it was clear that this was a profession, a career, not an anomaly.

[Warpy]

23. Thanks, I'd really like to know

because for all the years I was dirt poor, nobody offered me a red cent for any of my votes. I'm quite put out.

[EFerrari]

25. I don't blame you! Too bad we don't have something like that here

I could use the cash! On the other hand, we may.

[bjobotts]

52. It's still breaking the law. It continues unless they are held accountable

[bjobotts]

53. Has CREW been made aware of this. It needs a big spot light.Thanks Bradblog

[Wiley50]

9. Rep. Heather Wilson Accused of Felony Vote-Buying in New Mexico; Reporter Quits After News Director

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5766

Republican Delegate Convention Attendees Paid by Wilson Senate Campaign, According to Report Sourced by Three Eye-Witnesses, Removed from Website After Complaints to Station by Wilson
Memo From News Director to Reporter: 'Don't you think if there was anything to it the bloggers would have picked this up?'

Reporter Dennis Domrzalski's terrific scoop deserves to be read in full, so I won't quote much of it here.

The short version, however: New Mexico's ABC field producer and KKOB afternoon drive news reporter, Laura MacCallum, a 32-year news veteran, has quit her job after her story on an alleged vote-buying scheme by Republican Rep. Heather Wilson at the recent delegate nominating convention in Bernalillo County, New Mexico was scrubbed from her station's website by the News Director after allegedly pressure from Wilson.

The sitting Congresswoman is angling for an upgrade, as she hopes to be the state's Republican nominee to fill the Senate seat being vacated by outgoing Republican Pete Domenici. MacCallum's report, sourced by at least three different people, including herself, said that voters showed up to the delegate convention and claimed they were being were "paid $35-an-hour (for two hours)" by Wilson's senate campaign and the congressional campaign of Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, "and that the campaigns had also paid their $30 registration fees."

I just spoke with Domrzalski, and he underscored again, as he did in his story, that "Wilson’s spokeswoman flat out refused to answer the question" when asked if he asked her if the reports were true.

Such a scheme, if true, would be a fourth-degree felony, according to New Mexico law. But as remarkable as those charges are, even if having the ring of truth, given what we already know about Wilson, the response, including the memo sent from KKOB News Director Pat Allen to MacCallum, is almost as remarkable...

[wildbilln864]

10. k&r!

:patriot:

[gratuitous]

11. Oh, like a Republican could commit a felony!

That's just crazy talk, is what that is. We all know that Republicans are law-abiding, true blue Americans!

[napi21]

12. Isn't' Heather Wilson one of the people involved in the State AG scandals?

I thought I remembered hername associated with DOmenici in illegaly contacting the State AG.

[BradBlog]

24. Yes, she pressured David Iglesias before the '06 election

See the linked story, which offers some context in that regard.

[NM Independent]

28. Damn Skippy

It was David Iglesias, and most of the people I've talked to think she's a stinky bitch because of it.

[L. Coyote]

33. YES, but the contact was with the federal USA for NM to influence political prosecutions.

A crime also!

[comradebillyboy]

57. that would be the Bush Justice Department's

US Attorney for the State of New Mexico, David Iglesias

[Warpy]

13. All the TV in this town is owned by right wing nutcases

as is the remaining newspaper. I'm not surprised Wilson was able to pressure them into killing the story and ending the reporter's career.

The lawsuit over this one will be a real stinker.

Oh, and Udall's leading in all polls, statewide. Wilson is going to be Katherine Harris, redux, a loyalist whose ambition exceeded her grasp.

I just hope it costs her as much as it did Harris. She'll have to go begging for a Pentagon job, no lobbying for her for 2 years now.

[Horse with no Name]

14. This wouldn't be THE SAME HEATHER WILSON

that tried to bully former US Attorney Iglesias would it for NOT prosecuting Democrats would it? :rofl:

On edit here is a link:
>>>snip
Ms. Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Ms. Wilson, I received a call from Senator Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges — the cases Ms. Wilson had been asking about — before November. When I told him that I didn’t think so, he said, “I am very sorry to hear that,” and the line went dead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/opinion/21iglesias.html?pagewanted=print

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. Yes, she Is the same Heather Wilson! I was just about to post about her involvement with Inglesias.

Good thing I read the whole thread!

This is just too :rofl:

[Horse with no Name]

26. It's like karma and kismet all wrapped into one! n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

15. Damn liberal media news directors.

[TygrBright]

16. There's a reason she's known here in NM as Heather "Skanky Cow" Wilson...

...so none of us are terribly surprised.

cynically,
Bright

[L. Coyote]

20. you can't make this up this good

[Richard Steele]

27. K&R

[NM Independent]

29. I can't rec...I'm begging...as a NM citizen...please rec this for us

PLEASE!!!

You have no idea how important it is to keep her out of that Senate seat. Since Domenici decided to vacate his seat the Dems have a chance to take it back earlier than expected!!!!!

This is so incredibly important...PLEASE!!!!!!

This is a nasty, downright evil woman who has done incredible damage to this state.

GET THIS STORY SPREAD AROUND!!!!!!!

Sorry to be so emphatic, but...

[druidity33]

30. I'll k&r for you! nt.

[Lochloosa]

34. Done and welcome to DU

:toast:

[frog92969]

39. K&R

Election crimes should be treason.

[NM Independent]

54. HA!! This thread=my first REC....Woohoo!!!

Some unbelievably kind sould made a donation to DU and gave the star to me. I have no idea who you are, but in my book you freakin' ROCK!!!!

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

and another big THANK YOU!!! to everyone who is getting this story out there. I am sitting here absolutely amazed that I will finally see some prayers come true...

...the END to that EVIL HEATHER WILSON.

[VP505]

31. Maybe this will

help to rid NM of her permanently, funny thing is one of the sources was Former Republican Govenor Cargo. Cargo is one of the very very few Republicans that I have any respect for.

[spanone]

32. outcome, Mukasey invites her to dinner, declares her innocent of all charges

[barbtries]

35. well. the blogs have picked up on it now

hehe

[bluescribbler]

36. One for the Top 10

Alert EarlG.

[LynneSin]

37. Awwww - my heart is breaking. Not Heather Wilson - she's one of the good ones.....

NOT!!!!!!

She's such a blowhard who doesn't give a shit about the needs of her costituents NOR the needs of women, who are still sorely underrepresented in Congress.

Rot in jail bitch!

[yardwork]

38. k&r. Send them all to jail.

[radhika]

43. Let them ROT!

I am so sick of these *(^&* getting away with years of criminal collusion and undermining of the nation. May their remaining years of life be spent in obscurity, ignominy and PRISON.

[Malikshah]

40. You mean the Representative who had the coniption fit over Janet's boob?

That Heather Wilson?

You mean the Representative who scrubbed away her husband's sexual infelicities?

That Heather Wilson?

Nah...couldn't be *that* Heather Wilson.

[louis-t]

59. Infelicities? That's quite a word.

Never heard that one before. Gettin' out the Funk and Waggonal.

[Malikshah]

61. I have the power--- the create words....

I'm not sure it's the right choice...
But, hey, it's nicer than saying he's a sicko that intro'd porn into his house w/ kids around.

[ooglymoogly]

41. Whadaya expect, shes a lying, cheating, thieving, war mongering, big spending puke

she is just doing what comes naturally to the pukes.

[cascadiance]

42. How about sending some DU flowers to Laura MacCallum commemorating her courage!

for being principled and doing the right thing when the corporate media continues to assert its supposed rights to control "the truth" that they release to the public!

[malaise]

44. Pat Allen shold be thanked

He's given a huge story even more coverage.

[progressoid]

45. HA HA HA! The news director admits Blogs are the actual investigators!!

'Don't you think if there was anything to it the bloggers would have picked this up?'

Yeah, because TV snooze is asleep at the wheel. :boring:

[navarth]

46. k & r. n/t

[ElboRuum]

48. I am literally pissing my pants here... literally.

"if there was anything to it the bloggers would have picked this up, let alone other news agencies"

So, I guess that whole "journalism" thing isn't for you? I certainly understand how a news director could consider journalism "out of scope" of his job description.

:spray:

[likesmountains 52]

49. kick!

[WCGreen]

50. Question... How can it be a felony if it was at a party event...

Seriously, unless it was a state sanctioned election, then how could it be a felony...

[bjobotts]

51. One corrupt senator being replaced by one corrupt reprsentative.

Proving once again that ethics and integrity are not important to republicans. She should have been forced to resign...as it is the senator who interfered with elections on her part with the USA is having to resign and she wants to replace him. She just can't help herself...dishonest and deceitful to the core. It's for sure the GOP won't do anything about it since they encourage this type of behavior if it will help a republican win. We should kick this all over blogland. Wilson Once Again Trying to Steal An Election.

[LaurenG]

56. I hope Patricia Madrid hears about this

My niece worked for Madrid during the race.

Both my niece and my sister said that George Bush came down personally to help Wilson out. It sure looks like he taught Wilson a few things!

[Ilsa]

58. I hope she loses a shitload of her own money defending herself and

then goes to jail. For as long as they can put her there.

[dbonds]

60. Was she the one crying on the floor about Janet's boob?

[LiberalFighter]

62. Are blogs in NM pushing this story?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

64. They charge a $30 registration fee for delegates? WTF?

Fuckin' repukes. :puke: