JMDD VOTE BUYING SCHEME EXPOSED

Recently the Jeannemarie Davis for Lt. Governor campaign sent this email out to seek Delegates for the State GOP Convention (name redacted and email unedited including typos):

From: savannah
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 10:23 AM
Subject: DELEGATES FOR JEANNEMARIE DAVIS LT. GOVERNOR
To: XXX

Hi XXX, My name is Savannah Hinton on the staff to elect Jeannemarie Davis for Lt. Governor! Jeammnemarie is running against six other Republican candidates to get the nomination on May 18th. 2013. And, quite possibly the only one that can come out of Northern Virginia with a WIN, she a past House of Delegate, Past State Senator, plus just resigned from Gov. McDonald's Cabinet to run for Lt. Gov. full time.

We are very interested in getting the College Republicans at William and Mary College to support her. We are willing to pay $2.00 for every CR to sign up to be a Delegate and $8.00 if they actually for the convention.

If your organization is interested, please email me back or call for more information.

Sincerely,
Savannah Hinton
757-617-XXXX

That would be a clear violation of Virginia Code 24.2-1007:

"No person shall solicit or accept directly or indirectly any money or any thing of value to influence his or another's vote in any election. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. This section applies to any election and to any method used by a political party for selection of its nominees and for selection of delegates to its conventions and meetings."  

I emailed Savannah from the Davis campaign for a comment, and she emailed back to say she no longer worked for the campaign and that she was "totally at fault".  But field organizers do not have cash to be giving out- so obviously others in the campaign knew about this scheme and had approved it.  With the campaign quickly in cover up mode, it will be up to local prosecutors to determine who knew what- and when.

I've asked other LG candidates for their comments on this, and will update as they respond:

Senator Ralph Northam: "Anytime money trumps democracy citizens lose. Here we have not only a convention, closed to the general electorate, but a candidate who is willing to try and buy those limited votes. I believe Virginia deserves better and that is why I am focusing my campaign on the grassroots, and talking to Virginia voters." 

Comments

[Zachary Pruckowski]

Are we sure that that email isn't spam? Because there are more typos in it than the average Nigerian Prince's email...

[Jarrod Nagurka]

I think it's close, but the case could be made that what Ms. Hinton did was legal. While she did ask for W&M CR support, she did not explicitly say that in return for that support the campaign would dole out a financial reward. As long as the CRs registered and attended the convention, theoretically they could be paid by JMD and have voted for a different candidate. Think about how voters can call campaigns on election day for rides to the polls. That service costs the campaign money (gas, wear and tear on cars, etc.) and saves the voter money. Similarly, while it may be implied or expected that the voter would support the campaign giving him/her a ride, the voter could easily walk into the voting booth and vote for a different candidate. I think there's more of a visceral reaction to the proposal in this case because instead of a service, money is explicitly being offered. However, since Ms. Hinton did not explicitly state that the CRs would need to support JMD in order to receive payment, I don't think it's as black and white as it first appears.

[notlarrysabato]

Jarrod, good points, but let me clarify. Notice the title of the email. When people file for this convention, they are filing as Delegates for one of the candidates. I believe that means they are pledged to that candidate on the first ballot. No one ever knows for sure, but you are making a public pledge.

[Brian Kirwin]

Almost as bad as buying votes with free health care.

[Nancy Vogel]

One would think someone working for a Virginia candidate could at least spell the Governor's name right.

[CraigOrn]

To clarify, the RPV Party Plan clearly states that no unit can instruct delegates on any vote or candidate. They have a great deal of leeway on how they elect delegates and could theoretically require candidates for delegate to state their preference then elect just the ones they want. However, standard operating procedure has become to allow anyone to file. Heck, many units won't even hold their selection meetings, as they are allowed to cancel it if the number of filers does not exceed their vote times five.

[Virginiaconservative.wordpress.com]

Having attended both the 2008 and 2009 RPV conventions, let me tell you that there isn't a reliable way to buy votes, given that each person casts his or her ballot in secret.

Nevertheless, I do believe that it is pretty poor for a campaign to try and bribe delegates or organizations into supporting a candidate. As a former W&M CR, I hope that group didn't consider this offer.

[Dandem75]

Brian Kirwin, that is very low equating access to health care to buying votes. Noone is getting free health care under the ACA. Affordable health care is treated as a right in 90% of the developed world and will soon, long overdue, be treated as such, here in the USA....

[Brian Kirwin]

DanDem, nice to see you admit that the Democrats are trying to make America more like socialist foreign nations.

[Dandem75]

Brian Kirwin nice to see you are putting words in my mouth that are not my own.... Define Socialism.... Many nations such as Germany, France, Canada, Australia and England which have strong market economies, and Israel all guarantee universal health care. Are you going to impugn America's leading allies as socialist for believing that citizens deserve quality affordable health care? Or are you going to go following the example of Joe McCarthy wannabe Ted Cruz making accusations by baseless innuendo?