SIGNER SUPPORTER WAS FIRED FROM WAGNER CAMPAIGN FOR PETITION FRAUD

From the Wagner Campaign:

This is another example of Mike Signer making a poorly thought-out attack on Jody Wagner. Dominique Taylor is one of the people that offered to help collect signatures for our campaign for $1 each. When we went through the painstaking process of verifying our petitions, we reviewed about 190 "signatures" that Dominque certified that he had collected. They were unambiguous forgeries. Indeed, the handwriting for all the "signatures" was absoutely identical to Dominque's handwriting. Dominique later confirmed that he had forged all the signatures. He said that he needed the money right away and didn't have time to actually collect them. We immediately severed our relationship with him. That may explain his decision to support another candidate.

Mike's campaign responds:

"Talk about trying to create a distraction. This bizarre and unrelated attack on an observer of Jody's voting record smacks of desperation and panic. The plain fact is that in this, its first official statement about Jody Wagner's voting record, the Wagner campaign simply avoids the issue of Wagner's decision to blame traffic for her failure to vote - when thousands of Democrats stood in the rain for hours to vote in the most historic election in a generation. Worse, the Wagner campaign simply refuses to address - much less explain - Wagner's failure to vote in Democratic primaries in 2004 and 2005. Virginia Democrats deserve answers about this pattern and her decisions - now. We have nothing to comment on the internal Wagner issue with Dominique Taylor. It seems like it’s their problem to me.”

I don't know if I would call petition fraud "their problem", it's illegal and wrong.  Why would Mike want to work with someone who did that?

Jody's Campaign Responds Again:

As Jody said, she tried to get back to her home in Virginia Beach from her job in Richmond as a member of the Kaine Administration in time to vote, but traffic prevented her. It demonstrates the need for Virginia to pass early voting, which Republicans in the General Assembly once again killed. With less than seven weeks before the primary, the voters deserve to hear where the candidates stand on important issues, like how to get our economy back on track. As a senior member of the Warner and Kaine Administrations, Jody has a clear plan to do so. If Mike Signer wants to keep launching negative attacks, that's his prerogative. We're happy to compare her seven years of experience as a key member of the Warner and Kaine adminstrations to his six months any day.

Comments

[Joe "change"]

So much hay could be made of liberal actions nowadays, from Pelosi’s move towards Alzheimer’s when asked about her knowledge regarding interrogation tactics. To Obambi’s circular position on umm.. everything..lol..

Why expect so much from poor little Jody?

One simple word can now sum up the entire liberal gang.

Arrogantly pathetic.

[Anonymous]

I went over to Signer's website and this Dominique appears to just be someone who said they were convinced after the last debate. The Wagner campaign is clearly trying to distract from the fact that Jody didn't vote in '04, '05, & '08.

So apparently, in the logic of the Wagner campaign having a less than stellar supporter is worse than not getting off your ass to vote.

While I certainly respect an attempt to distract from a real issue, this clearly a load of bullshit.

[Larry Sabato's Hairpiece]

This is a fight between a woman who cannot add and a guy who cannot handle basic paperwork. It's like watching Timmy fight Jimmy on South Park. What a trainwreck.

[traffic aint my excuse]

What does dominique have to do with mike. He worked for jody.
The issue is the fact that jody is a lousy democrat. Her shady payment of a street petition guy has nothing to do with the fact to do with the fact that she is a bad democrat

[anon]

Publicly embarrassing and humiliating a young (I assume) campaign worker in an offical campaign statement?

That’s a pretty vicious and pathetic move by the Wagner team.

Does Jody really approve of these tactics by her campaign?

[Brian Kirwin]

If Jody worked in Richmond and lived in Virginia Beach, she easily qualified for an absentee ballot.

So, she chose not to get an absentee ballot and we're to believe it's because she planned on making it from Richmond to Virginia Beach by 7 pm?

Around 800 people in Virginia Beach voted absentee.

[martha]

I think paying people to get signatures on petitions is a bad practice. Why don't candidates rely on local Committees to help? Their staff could recruit volunteers. Paying people to do this is not a good way to go, in my opinion.

[R]

That this is even being proffered as a pundit-worthy issue is an example of shameless frivolity.

Some of the stuff I have been hearing from Signer's crew trying to convince me to change my allegiances has been downright horrible. I think Mike is a real up-and-comer in Virginia but I think he'd be better suited to either run for delegate somewhere during the next cycle or to become a staple personality and join the fundraising/strategist fray. He hits good points on his speeches but I think he sounds a little awkward. That could just be a matter of perception, though.

[Mr. GOP]

Pa-leeeeze tell me when someone who commits fraud on these petitions will FINALLY get prosecuted in this state. What happened to the rule of law around here? Oh well, he needed the money, guess that counts for something…oh maybe he is a victim in all of this…good grief.

[Fan of right wing b&m-ing]

Joe "change" aka right wing spammer.

Arrogantly pathetic is 2 words, not 1.

2 more words for you- grow up.

[ashleeP]

For those of you out there who are so enamored with Mike Signer, have any of you actually stopped to look at what his resume actually says? The guy is only 35 and has bounced around so much between different jobs and grad schools that he’s never actually stayed anywhere long enough to accomplish much. For example:
1995: Graduated from college
1996: ???
1997: Legislative aide to Creigh Deeds for less than a year
1997 – 2001: Grad school – PhD
2001 – 2004: Grad school, again – law school
Fall 2004 – Spring 2007: Worked for WCPHD (law firm) for about 2.5 years. But, wait, didn’t he actually work for Warner for the last 6 months that Warner was in office, in 2005? So it’s unclear how long he was actually at the law firm. And btw, if he were so important to Warner, why didn’t Kaine want to keep him on in the new administration? (From what I’ve heard, he wasn’t even working for Warner directly. Instead, he was in a mid-level position reporting to Bob Blue, Warner’s head of policy matters.)
2007: Teaching at VA Tech for a year
2008: Advisor to John Edwards (mid-level position somewhere in Iowa, not in VA) / Advisor to Tom Periello / Think Tank advisor
I’m sorry, Signer may be a nice guy, but nothing about his resume tells me that he’s ready to be LG for Virginia. If we put him up as our candidate, the Rs will trounce him as the “Sarah Palin” of VA politics. The guy may be likeable, but he’s just not ready to be Governor should the Governor die or leave office. He talks about creating jobs, but, unlike Bowerbank or Wagner, he’s never actually created a single job in anything he’s ever done. At least Bowerbank and Wagner have started their own businesses and have real business and government experience to rely on. And for those of you who think it’s unlikely for the Governor to leave office, look at what a mess NY and IL have become in the last year.
And to really put his lack of experience in perspective, consider this: In 2002-2004, Signer was still in law school, while Wagner was managing the state’s finances as Treasurer of Virginia and Bowerbank was running his 220 person family business in Southwest VA. So, please, people, open your eyes to the fact that this guy really is not qualified to be LG. Maybe he should follow Pat’s lead and consider running for a more reasonable “entry-level” political office instead (but of course not bail on that like Pat did).

[sungleDem]

Kudos to Wagner campaign for taking correct action: firing a worker who does something unethical/illegal.

I know lots of folks who got stranded last March and couldn't vote in primary. spilled milk

[Mr. GOP]

Great. He's fired. No-brainer. What about the law? Will he be held accountable for making this false official statement? Will the candidate call for this?

[Daniel]

It is obvious that ashleepis PRO Wagner. She posted the same exact post to every blog.

[VirginiaYD]

Wow, that was really low for the Wagner Campaign to release that person's name like that, esp. when it had NOTHING to do with the issue at hand.
Kudos to the Signer camp for checking Wagner, it's inexcusable for Jody not to have a REAL reason as to why she didn't vote. For goodness sakes this is about judgment and Jody Wagner's lack of it.

[Life is Good]

Hope Wagner has defamation insurance. She just accused someone publicly of criminal conduct. Not smart.

As for Signer, he's young and his record is full of diverse and useful experiences. But calling him a lightweight is unfounded. The guy is seriously smart and is far more intellectually curious about a broader range of issues than Wagner. He's grown everyday on the campaign trail. Wagner hasn't been able to seal the deal in months of campaigning and her record with Kaine is hardly steller.

To me there's no comparison. Mike has a vision for the office and the mind to succeed. Why is Wagner offering?

[I.Publius]

Wagner and Signer are both out of their league. It's going to be a laugh riot to watch Bolling take either of them behind the woodshed.

When did the Virginia Democrat bench get so thin and weak? It's looking more and more like a GOP sweep in 2009. Have fun with that.

[truthnjustice]

I Pub -- are you crazy? Shannon is a virtual lock over Ken Kookinelli (spelling was deliberate to reflect how crazy his views will come across -- There is virtually no way that experienced prosecutor and mainstream legislator Shannon will be defeated by right wing, ideologue darling Cooch!

And Bill (Insurance Enron) Bolling hardly has a record of accomplishment to run on -- not to mention his play book is the same stale "real virgina" versus "fake virginia" campaign of fear and smear that has been increasingly failing the VA GOP in recent years!

But dream on if you will, I Pub -- the results will speak for themselves in November!

[Tom Paine]

Ben is going to lose some of his wingnut fans off this site if he keeps on trashing the Republicans.
The wingnuts are learning
-- to their
despair -- that Ben is an equal opportunity trasher.

[thoughtful conservative]

Fan,

"Joe "change" aka right wing spammer. Arrogantly pathetic is 2 words, not 1."

If "Joe's" comment is a reference to Biden's "three letter word.. JOBS " comment it is rather funny.

If not then somebody, besides our VP, needs to go back to school.

[I.Publius]

"Shannon is a virtual lock over Ken Kookinelli"

Right. And the last Democrat to win AG was....? Remind me.

[Joe "change"]

F.ORW,

You are an idiot, must be embarrassing not to even be able to "get" a simple reference like that. Go back to class.

[Rob Smith, III]

Publius,

Surely someone summoning the truly laudable moniker of a writer of the Federalist Papers would know -- should know -- that it's all very well to look at previous election trends isolated to a state [Commonwealth]. Isolating that factor as the sole determinant, however, misleads public opinion. We should not kid ourselves; Shannon has stronger AG creds than Deeds did and both are incredibly likeable personalities. I like Brownlee's creds better than Cuccinelli's but that GOP contest leading up to the primary is more about name recognition; Cuccinelli is skewed toward the NoVa demographic, while Brownlee enjoys some decent ground support across the state. Eclipsing that? Steve Shannon's recognition. His pro-family, tough on crime experience can offset gains by the GOP nominee and I think more funding will pour in in the aftermath of the primary.

Re: Wagner? Signer should be running for Delegate, not Lt. Gov.