The ballot fraud case in Troy, New York, shifted from a long parade of defrauded voter testimony, and focused on two operatives in the Working Families Party (WFP) Monday  - Thomas Aldrich and James Welch.  The trial involves two Democrats – former City Councilman Michael LoPorto, and Rensselaer County Board of Elections Commissioner Edward McDonough.  The two have been accused of over 100 combined felonies in connection with the alleged defrauding of the 2009 Working Families Party primary.

Aldrich testified about his volunteer efforts on behalf of the Democrat party, which included knocking on doors and handing out brochures.  McDonough’s defense attorney, Brian Premo, pointed out that Aldrich’s name is on 13 of the allegedly fraudulent ballots.  Aldrich however, said that “He was not involved in any wrongdoing, and had no reason to believe anything illegal was happening…”

Perhaps more intriguing was the testimony of James Welch, Chairman of the Rensselaer County WFP.  A 2009 report by the Times Union indicates that some of the absentee ballots were returnable either to Democrat or WFP operatives, including Welch and Aldrich.  In a statement at that time, Welch claimed that “my conduct was strictly proper”.

However, on January 26th, State Police Investigator John Ogden testified that Welch was given a cooperation agreement to testify in the case.

Despite such lofty status as Chairman of county WFP, Welch apparently had little idea of how the rules involving absentee ballots worked, even though it would impact the integrity of his party’s ballot line.

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As the city of Troy, NY, awaits jury selection in the first trial involving two Democrats and their alleged roles in a “massive” voter fraud scheme, new details have emerged from the investigation.  Details involving two other veteran political operatives that have already pleaded guilty.

According to a recent Fox News report, Anthony Renna, a Democrat guilty of second-degree forgery, and Anthony DeFiglio, a Democrat guilty of first-degree falsifying business records, are trying to drag all local politicians, regardless of party affiliation, down with the ship.  Thus far, eight people have been charged in connection with the ballot fraud investigation, four of which have pleaded guilty.

Reports emerging from the investigation indicate that the Democrats are trying to implicate Republicans of the same conduct they have been charged with.  According to the state police, Renna and DeFiglio both claimed that, ”voter fraud is an accepted way of winning elections, and faking absentee ballots was commonplace.”

Renna explained that the process of handing in forged ballots and fake votes ensures that “ballots are voted correctly.”  He adds, “‘Voted correctly’ is a term used for a forged application or ballot.”

DeFiglio added that such fraud is actually “an ongoing scheme and it occurs on both sides of the aisle.  What appears as a huge conspiracy to nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic.”

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Evidence suggests that ACORN, the left’s premiere astro-turfing organization, has been paying people to participate in the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Astro-turfing campaigns can generate big money, and ACORN’s lucrative protest-for-profit program is nothing new. As I note in my book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN has acquired great expertise in manufacturing so-called grassroots protests.

Left-wing billionaires Herb and Marion Sandler, the founders of World Savings Bank, gave ACORN affiliates close to $11 million to manufacture mobs to protest their competition in subprime mortgage lending. The United Federation of Teachers paid ACORN $500,000 to create a spontaneous uprising against charter schools in Manhattan.

The SEIU-funded Working Families Party, a front group for ACORN, placed a want ad on Craigslist dated Sept. 26. The ad indicates that WFP was recruiting activists to carry out “direct action,” leftist argot for a variety of activities aimed at forcing sociopolitical change.

The line between direct action and violent terrorism can become blurry. Extreme forms of direct action can lead to bodily injury and sometimes death. The labor movement is no stranger to assault and killings. Left-wing activists David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin participated in an attack on an armored car that left two police officers and a security guard dead. Two anarchists tried to disrupt the 2008 GOP convention with Molotov cocktails. The eco-terrorist Sea Shepherd Conservation Society admits both to attacking whaling ships with acid and sinking them.

WFP’s ad is titled, “FIGHT TO HOLD WALLSTREET [sic] ACCOUNTABLE NOW! MAKE A DIFFERNENCE [sic] GET PAID!” It states:

The WFP is seeking immediate hires.

You must be an energetic communicator, with a passion for social and economic justice.

Only outgoing, articulate dedicated, determined candidates will be considered for the positions.

For those candidates that qualify WFP offers substantial paid-training provided by senior leadership, on varied issues such as: advocacy, public speaking, mobilizing, fundraising, networking and organizing. We invest in passionate people with excellent communication skills and a full benefits package is offered to those candidates that qualify. In addition, there is opportunity for advancement and travel to our satellite chapters and out of state affiliates.

This is not a policy job! Through direct action you will be shaping NY state politics for the next 20 years.” [emphasis added]

As previously reported, WFP has been involved in organizing the Occupy Wall Street protests since the beginning.

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The Working Families Party, an infamous ACORN front group notorious for corruption, was instrumental in organizing the Occupy Wall Street protests, according to radical journalist Laura Flanders of Free Speech TV.

The protests, which have spread to several other large U.S. cities, are part of what ACORN’s neo-communist founder Wade Rathke calls an “anti-banking jihad.”

Working Families Party (WFP) organizer Nelini Stamp has “been here since day one and she is part of the organizing team and the outreach team that has managed to bridge the distance between that first day and this day and between the grassroots folks here and the labor movement,” Flanders said at the protest in lower Manhattan.

We are “actually trying to change the capitalist system we have today because it’s not working for any of us,” Stamp told Flanders in an interview. Demonstrators are asking “how do we really reform and bring revolutionary changes to the states?”

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My fellow Americans–and, I suppose, Canadians:

I regret to inform you that you are not the “99 Percent.”

The 99 Percent dislikes big banks, but also dislikes big government–and big messes.

The 99 Percent does not occupy property it does not own, public or private.

The 99 Percent does not steal from local businesses, does not attack police officers, does not storm national museums, and does not defecate in public.

Flyer at #OccupyWallStreet - the address for donations is a small building in Washington, DC shared by Code Pink and other "progressive" organizations

The 99 Percent does not rank people’s views based on their skin color, gender, or socioeconomic status.

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Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut’s 3rd District, and her husband may be engaging in more than just marriage.

According to Human Events, federal campaign records show that, during the last four congressional election cycles, Congresswoman DeLauro’s campaign transferred $1.2 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the branch of the House Democrats that deals with fundraising and recruitment. During that same period of time, the DCCC engaged Stanley Greenberg, Ms. DeLauro’s husband, and his firm, for polling and other services pertinent to its political campaigns. Stanley Greenberg’s company was reportedly paid $1.9 million for services rendered to the DCCC. Note the incestuous cycle whereby Ms. DeLauro gives money to the Democratic party, which hires her husband, and, ultimately, gives the money back to Ms. DeLauro’s personal household.

For those who don’t know her, Ms. DeLauro is a powerful, liberal, close friend of Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader. Despite her position, the congresswoman is often difficult to follow when she speaks. In the video below, she responds to a question about why she was vacationing in Italy while her district was under water and without power following Tropical Storm Irene. Good luck.

While something here smells “rotten in Denmark,” stories such as this often evoke cynical responses, such as, “Everybody does it,” or “It’s hard to control who people are married to and what they do for a living,” or “It’s not illegal, it’s just unethical.”

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Democratic and Working Families Party Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut dusted off the speech he had planned to make at the end of June, when state employee unions rejected a $1.6 billion concession package that would close a hole in the state’s budget. Embarrassed that their rank and file members rejected the plan that they agreed to with the first Democratic governor of the state in 20 years, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) agreed to a new vote after changing the bylaws to allow a simple majority of state employees, rather than 80%, to be the required threshold for ratification of contracts. The old bylaws also did not allow for revotes.

Following the governor’s threats of thousands of layoffs, the concession package, as anticipated, was overwhelmingly approved on the second vote on Thursday by 14 of the 15 unions. Ironically, the union representing corrections officers, AFSCME, which had rejected the package originally, approved it wholeheartedly this time, despite the fact that corrections workers have solicited membership in the National Correctional Employees Union (NCEU), charging that they were misrepresented by the vote to change the bylaws.

Upon ratification of the contract, the governor released the following statement:

“We have achieved something the skeptics said was unachievable: we’ve made the relationship between the state and its workforce sustainable. And, unlike in most other states, we did it without going to war with public employees. We’ve shown what’s possible when management and labor work together in a respectful fashion. Sure, this agreement took a few extra months to achieve – but so what? Those extra months are a small price to pay for the billions of dollars that extra time will save taxpayers, the critical services that time will preserve, and the peace of mind that comes from understanding the state now has a sustainable relationship with its employee base…”

The agreement calls for a two-year wage freeze and some changes to pension benefits and healthcare, such as required annual visits to a physician. In exchange, the unions obtained no layoffs for four-years and a pledge they would not be required to take unpaid furlough days. According to Mr. Malloy, the changes will save the state an estimated $1.6 billion over the next two years and $21.5 billion over the next two decades. As of July 1st, the governor’s budget plan called for “shared sacrifice” from taxpayers, who have consequently experienced the largest tax increase in the history of the state, including a hike in the income tax, retroactive to January 1st.

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In Jaunary, I wrote about indictments in a New York State election fraud investigation. In a September 2009 Working Families Party primary in Troy, NY, there were allegations of voter fraud. Two Democratic members of the Troy City Council were indicted on 116 charges related to absentee voter fraud.

Now the (Democratic) City Clerk has resigned and plead guilty to a felony as part of the investigation. He is also singing. The Clerk, William McInerney is a Democratic Committeeman, and the police seem to have the goods on him going back to at least 2007, suggesting that this may be a way of life in Troy, NY.

The plea offer made to McInerney, a Democrat, is based, in part, on information compiled by State Police showing McInerney may have helped forge absentee ballots in previous campaigns dating to at least 2007.
McInerney, 47, is a former state Assembly worker who has been a Democratic committeeman in Troy for years. He was appointed to the clerk’s position by the City Council when Democrats took control of the Troy council in January 2008.

Just to emphasize the point: this guy was appointed by the Democrats to run elections in 2008. The cops have him for election fraud back to 2007. So the Democrats appointed someone who knew how to steal elections to run elections.

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Call it hokus pokus or smoke and mirrors. The Norwich Bulletin reports that the leaders of Connecticut’s state employee unions (SEBAC) plan to meet on Monday to vote to change their bylaws in order to stave off Democratic and Working Families Party Governor Dannel Malloy’s threats of 4,300 layoffs and the halt of many government services. As was reported here several weeks ago, 57% of public sector union members rejected a concession package, which was to close a $1.6 billion hole in the state’s budget, where, currently, 80% rank and file is required for approval of concessions.

Amidst much fanfare focused on the special relationship between Connecticut’s public sector unions and their choice for governor, Mr. Malloy and union leaders agreed to the concession package, behind closed doors. Union leaders were embarrassed that the concession plan approved by the governor they worked to elect was rejected by a sufficient number of their members, suggesting that they were out of touch with their rank and file members. In June, however, Matt O’Connor, a spokesman for the coalition of union leaders, said some union members were operating under several misperceptions, including a belief that a rejection of the deal would lead to further negotiations.

Apparently, yesterday’s misperceptions are today’s realities.

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Some media outlets in the state of Connecticut, as well as residents, are questioning the judgment of Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy, who is leading his Democratic-led state legislature on a whirlwind drive of dubious legislation that is creating an atmosphere of insecurity, and making the prospects of more private business and jobs in the state increasingly less likely. Questions of concern, if not outright criticism, are being drawn from state residents and conservative Republicans who view much of the legislation passed as rushed through, without sufficient debate, and endangering an already extremely vulnerable business climate in a state in which unemployment is over 9%.

Governor Malloy’s legislative agenda appears to be right out of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid “every day another stunning bill” play book. And much of the legislation seems, in one way or another, connected to Mr. Malloy’s close relationship with the public sector unions which worked hard to elect him.

The legislature passed the largest tax hike in the history of the state, and then secured a deal, though still “tentative,” with union leaders for $1.6 billion of the $2 billion in concessions needed to close the state’s budget gap. Many are skeptical of the “concessions,” since it appears little was really given up, from the private sector perspective, and the package relies heavily upon retirements. In addition, the governor said he would make up the difference primarily with spending cuts. However, in true Pelosi-Reid “let’s pass the bill on Christmas Eve” fashion, Mr. Malloy gave the news to lawmakers, Friday night before Memorial Day weekend, that he would, instead, make up the remaining hole in the budget with none other than projected “surplus” monies. Thus, the “surplus” is only to help the unions, who apparently couldn’t reach their $2 billion goal, not the taxpayers, who are bearing the brunt of the “shared sacrifice.”

According to a media blog of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which Governor Malloy said he would implement for his state, would erase 2012 projected surpluses which he and the state legislature are now relying upon to balance their two-year budget.

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(continued from Part 2)

It should come as no surprise that on the campaign trail, President Obama refused to be interviewed about Saul Alinsky, the community organizing guru who wrote Rules for Radicals, a how-to guide for destroying American capitalism and democracy.

Presumably Obama, who taught courses on Alinsky’s brutal, sometimes violent organizing techniques, declined to speak to reporters about the late guru. He must have realized that such an interview would throw an unwanted spotlight on Alinsky’s radicalism, and by extension, his own. Such counterproductive publicity would also have undermined the candidate’s efforts to reinvent himself as a moderate. Alinsky’s adherents now dominate the modern Democratic Party establishment. Apart from President Obama himself, they include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, Federal Communications Commission diversity chief Mark Lloyd, Obama’s ex-green jobs czar Van Jones, former DNC trainer Heather Booth, Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to name just a few. “Who the hell isn’t [an Alinskyite] in this administration?” asks conservative author David Horowitz.

And President Obama hasn’t been the only longtime ACORN operative working in the White House. There’s also the low-profile Patrick Gaspard who, until recently, was White House political affairs director, one of the titles Karl Rove held in President Bush’s White House.

In a move that ought to disturb anyone who cares about the integrity of the democratic process, earlier this year Gaspard took over the reins of the Democratic National Committee as its executive director—just in time to begin initial preparations for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

Gaspard hails from the same world of radical left-wing community organizing that made Barack Obama who he is today. Gaspard is an expert in the harsh, street-smart organizing tactics taught by Alinsky. He’s the hatchet man Obama sent to New York over a year ago to strong-arm then-Gov. David Paterson into dropping his reelection campaign. As executive director running the DNC’s day-to-day operations, Gaspard will oversee Organizing for America, a project of the DNC supposedly modeled on Alinskyite organizing principles.

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It looks like Matt Damon’s been overdosing on Kool-Aid again.  He’s apparently doing the bidding now for the ACORN spawn, Working Families Party.  Watch as he asks you for his birthday present.

I’m about to celebrate a very important birthday myself, Matt.  On November 13^th, I turn 41 ! I know, I can’t believe it either.

If there’s something you want to give me for my birthday that’s going to really cheer me up, please tell the recently departing Working Families Party co-chair Bertha Lewis to stop referring to constitutional conservatism as “McCarthyism”.  And while you’re at it, could you please ask your friend, President Obama not to call American citizens “enemies” simply for not belonging to his political party?

I think maybe it’s time to step away from Soroswood and start paying attention to the real world.

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Yesterday came the news that ACORN was ‘dissolving’ its national structure, allowing many of its local chapters to go ‘independent’. ACORN’s destruction of its brand had threatened the existence of every ACORN office in the country. Shedding the ACORN brand will give them a chance restart the flow of public money and leftist donors.

Make no mistake, however, that while their names may change, the personnel groomed by ACORN and the tactics they employ will remain the same. To paraphrase a famous verse, “A Rose by any other name…has just as many thorns.”

Below is an invite to New York ACORN’s first ‘re-branding shindig.’ This Thursday, long-time political allies of ACORN and its Working Families Party will host a high-dollar fundraiser for “New York Communities for Change,” the presumptive heir to ACORN NY.

ACORN Relaunch -

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Only weeks ago the New York Post reported that former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger gave a whitewash to ACORN, the shady community action/organization that specialized in voter fraud and sucking up public funds. Harshbarger, a liberal democrat whose career was funded by the same Labor unions who fund ACORN, is hardly an unbiased analyst.

More ominously, the New York Post predicted a similar Whitewash of the Working Families Party.

In an exclusive for Big Government, it can now be reported that Justice Kaye has a prior association with the WFP leadership and in fact ruled for the WFP Bosses in a lawsuit.
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[Ed: This excerpt is Part 3 from a series originally reported by City Hall. Part I can be seen here, Part II can be seen here. Lead reporter on the investigative series was Edward-Isaac Dovere.]

The Working Families Party has irregularly reported rent payments over the years on its state campaign finance disclosures, leading some to question whether the Party has been getting what could be considered large in-kind contributions in the form of office space.

Also among the recipients of rent payments was an entity called NYOSCI, listed on multiple documents as having an address in New Orleans identical to one used by many ACORN entities on incorporation documents.

NYOSCI has been the recipient of most of the Party’s recent rent payments, though some have also been made to Community Labor Administrative Services, a group also reporting the 2-4 Nevins Street address on records with the State Board of Elections.

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[Ed: This excerpt is the second in a series of articles originally reported at City Hall. Go here for Part I in the series. Lead reporter on City Hall investigation was Edward-Isasc Dovere.]

The Working Families Organization, a tax-exempt 501(c)4, was legally created with a certificate of incorporation filed with the New York Department of State on July 12, 2006. Despite the similarities in the names, this paperwork established the Working Families Organization as a legally separate entity.

That certificate lists four initial directors, starting with now-White House political director Patrick Gaspard, who was then a board member of the Working Families Party. The other three were ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis, Robert Master of the Communications Workers of America and Sam Williams of the United Auto Workers. These three also were and remain the three co-chairs of the Working Families Party.

Kevin Finnegan, who is now the political director for the 1199 Service Employees International Union, but who was then an attorney at Levy Ratner PC, signed the document as the incorporator. Finnegan is also the notary on the official Party rules filed with the Board of Elections and the lawyer who set up Data and Field Services.

The incorporation forms and other documents, like the Organization’s paperwork filed with the IRS, must be made public as a condition of its tax-exempt status. However, the process takes years, meaning that the most recent forms that are completed and available are from 2007.

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[Ed Note: Recently, City Hall in New York published an amazing multi-part investigative piece on possible corruption, illegal activities and general shadiness within the multi-pronged Working Families Party in New York. For those of you searching for examples of what investigative journalism used to be like, this series is a good place to start. Under the direction of lead reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, the series explored the tangled web the Party in New York. Big Government readers will note that one of the co-chairs of the Party is Working Families Party is Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN. So, for those keeping score at home, this is the second organization headed by Lewis is that marked by opaque and confusing interrelationships and ethically-challenged legal boundaries. Hmm, what are the odds? Today begins Part I]

In August, City Hall published an investigative report explaining the operations of the Working Families Party’s for-profit company, Data & Field Services. In early September, after conducting its own review, the New York City Campaign Finance Board officially declared that “DFS exists as an arm of the Working Families Party.” Over the last three months, City Hall has continued the investigation, relying on dozens of interviews with people within and outside the organization, in addition to a review of tax, lobbying and campaign finance records, as well as confidential internal documents.

Following weeks of in-depth inquiries from City Hall, the Working Families Party announced on Nov. 6 that it was hiring the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to conduct a review of its practices, with the effort to be led by Judith Kaye, the former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

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A Staten Island Democrat is blaming her city council loss on ACORN.  Apparently she didn’t know her political consultant, Scott Levenson of the Advance Group, was the same Scott Levenson that has been relentlessly defending ACORN.

Levenson has served as ACORN’s crisis communications consultant and needless to say, he’s been a busy man.

Nevertheless, Janine Materna’s loss for the South Shores City Council is ACORN’s fault.  From the Staten Island Advance:

Democrat Janine Materna’s campaign is considering suing its consulting firm, the Advance Group, for $1 million, and claimed that consultant Scott Levenson’s position with the controversial ACORN group was among the reasons Ms. Materna lost the South Shore City Council race.

“It’s because of him that Janine lost the election,” said Jodi Materna, her sister’s campaign manager.

She said the campaign did not know of Levenson’s ACORN affiliation and if it had, “we never would have hired him.”

…

Levenson, ACORN’s national spokesman, said it was a “true sign of political immaturity to scapegoat anyone for Janine’s loss.”

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It’s becoming more and more difficult for the Obama White House to deny that White House political director Patrick Gaspard has strong, longstanding ties to the corrupt activist group ACORN.

Gaspard is a longtime operative for ACORN and one of its political parties, New York’s Working Families Party.

Internal ACORN documents show Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 over the past two years while he worked as an executive vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1199 in New York.

That’s an awfully large tithe for someone who made $111,894 in 2007 and who has a wife and two children. The $111,894 figure comes from SEIU 1199′s most recent publicly available tax return.

Moreover, Gaspard hails from New York which has a crushing tax burden, especially for individuals earning six-figure salaries — and he lived in the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. It was unclear at press time if Gaspard’s wife contributes to the family fisc.

It is also entirely possible that the $40,000 Gaspard handed over to ACORN was SEIU money.

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The radical left took a couple of hits on the chin yesterday, losing two significant governorships in Virgina and New Jersey. Add to this the embarrassing outing of one of their WFP endorsed RINO’s in NY-23, and this was not a banner cycle for the President Obama’s ACORN movement.

The Democratic Socialists and Marxists did score one important win in Staten Island yesterday, with the election of their WFP candidate for City Council, Debi Rose.

This is the same Debi Rose who recently exercised her 5th amendment right to avoid incriminating herself in an ACORN-WFP campaign finance related scandal.

There are two reasons this very local election is important beyond Staten Island.

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