News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Driscoll, 202-360-3273, chris@votenader.org
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2008----Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader
today called on Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett to expand his
political corruption investigation by "moving up the political ladder
in Pennsylvania" to ferret out the masterminds behind the underhanded
and illegal effort to deny him access to the Pennsylvania ballot in
2004.
And Nader called on Attorneys General in others states--including
Oregon, Ohio and Illinois--to launch similar probes.
"The Pennsylvania Democratic Party's effort to deny Pennsylvanians the
choice of voting for the Nader-Camejo candidacy in 2004 appears to have
been a criminal conspiracy massive in scale, involving virtually the
entire House Democratic caucus, including its top leadership," Nader
said. "The alleged misconduct extends beyond the misappropriation of
public resources and taxpayer dollars, and strikes directly at the
First Amendment right of all Pennsylvanians to choose their elected
officials in open and competitive elections."
"But the effort to deny our right to ballot access was not relegated to
a handful of Democratic Party operatives in Harrisburg," Nader said.
"It was a nationwide campaign. I urge the Attorneys General of other
states where we were denied--including Illinois, Ohio, Oregon--to
launch similar investigations and to move up the ladder to determine
the lead Democratic Party operatives who worked on this illegal
operation against our 2004 campaign."
A state grand jury sitting in Harrisburg, Pa. today indicted 12
Democratic political operatives for the illegal use of millions of
dollars in taxpayers' funds, resources and state employees for
political campaign purposes. (See AG press release and indictment here)
The grand jury found that employees and resources of the House
Democratic Caucus were historically and routinely used to conduct
petition challenges against candidates who were opponents of Democratic
House candidates or the Democratic Party.
The grand jury found that as many as 50 Democratic House Caucus staff
members participated in the Nader petition challenge and contributed "a
staggering number of man-hours."
A House Democratic employee testified before the grand jury that
"everybody was working on this."
"A veritable Army" of Democratic staffers were enlisted in the effort
to deny Nader ballot status.
It was virtually a caucus-wide endeavor and many of the employees spent
an entire week on the Nader petition challenge.
Upon the successful challenge to the Nader petition, former House
Democratic Minority Whip Mike Veon sent an e-mail to his staff stating:
"FYI .great job by our staff! This would have never been successful
without your work. You have given John Kerry an even better
opportunity to win this state.one of the 5 most important states to win
this year...This is a very significant fact and significant
contribution by each one of you to the Kerry for president campaign.you
should take great pride in your efforts."
"Attorney General Corbett indicated today that this indictment,
although the culmination of a two-year grand jury investigation, is
really just the beginning," Nader said. "We urge the Attorney General
to investigate the role that others played in denying ballot access to
the Nader-Camejo ticket, including the law firm Reed Smith, LLP, which
apparently worked hand in hand with the House Democratic leadership to
challenge our nomination papers, and any members of the judiciary
involved in conflicts of interest or other inappropriate behavior in
denying us ballot access and our the ability to defend our rights."