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"A. Citizen" <A_Citizen@nh.ultranet.com> wrote in message
news:389C535E.D791F@nh.ultranet.com...
> Bringing "Honesty and Integrity" Back to the Whitehouse!
>
> Was forging signatures to get on the ballot in the Bronx and example of
the
> "Honesty and Integrity" that President-elect Bush (as the media has been
> calling him for the last year) will bring to the Whitehouse? See the 5th
> paragraph from the end.
>
> A reminder for the Bush Campaign: This is the United States of America.
> Keeping the competition off the ballot DOES NOT happen in this country.
This
> IS NOT a third world country! This IS NOT Communist China! We hold FREE
> ELECTIONS in this country!
>
> From the NY Times 2/5/00:
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/020500wh-gop-mccain-ny.html
>
>           Rejecting Rules, U.S. Judge Opens New York Ballot
>
>           By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
>
>           With the state's Republican leadership in retreat, a federal
>           judge made Senator John McCain's victory over the New
>           York primary system official yesterday, placing him on the
ballot
>           and even adding another candidate, Alan Keyes. The judge's order
>           means that Republicans in New York will for the first time in
>           memory choose from the same presidential contenders running in
>           other states.
>
>           The judge, Edward R. Korman of United States District Court in
>           Brooklyn, also sought to hinder the state party from
disqualifying
>           candidates like Mr. McCain in future primaries, ruling that two
>           requirements for circulating nominating petitions were
>           unconstitutional.
>
>           The moves by the judge came in a court settlement reached a
>           day after Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and his chief New York
>           supporter, Gov. George E. Pataki, dropped their attempt to use
>           the state's tortuous election rules to bar Mr. McCain from the
>           March 7 primary.
>
>           The two governors hoped to limit the political damage from the
>           ballot fight, which Mr. McCain, who scored a startling win in
the
> New
>           Hampshire primary, had turned into a potent symbol of his
tilting
>           against the political establishment.
>
>           In the court settlement, the Republican State Committee
>           acknowledged that the primary rules "impose an undue burden on
>           access" to the ballot, depriving people of the right to vote
under
>           the First Amendment.
>
>           Until yesterday, voters in some parts of the state would have
been
>           able to select only between Mr. Bush and Steve Forbes, the
>           publisher, but the ballot across the state is now to include the
> four
>           contenders still in the race.
>
>           Mr. McCain had tried to qualify across New York, but petition
>           challenges by the party had left him on the ballot in only 19 of
the
>           state's 31 Congressional districts.
>
>           Mr. Pataki promised on Thursday that Mr. McCain would be in the
>           primary across the state, but Mr. McCain and his lawyers said
they
>           wanted more than just a ballot spot, demanding that some of the
>           rules be repealed.
>
>           In talks yesterday to settle a lawsuit brought by Mr. McCain
>           against the primary system, party lawyers then pledged not to
>           appeal the judge's decision to overturn the two petition
>           requirements.
>
>           "After a long struggle, I am now confident that I can win the
state
>           of New York," Mr. McCain said in a statement. "I am glad there
will
>           not be a repetition of the kind of machine-style political
control
> of
>           the process of selecting the nominee of our party."
>
>           Whether the 2004 primary will be starkly different is unclear,
>           because the governor and the Legislature renew the rules every
>           four years. But the publicity surrounding the ballot fight and
the
>           judge's ruling and repeated criticism suggest that the
Republicans
>           may be ready to overhaul a system that has long given the party
>           favorite many advantages.
>
>           The Democratic system in New York has less onerous
>           requirements, though it is still tougher than that of many other
>           states. Both major contenders this year, Vice President Al Gore
>           and former Senator Bill Bradley, qualified statewide.
>
>           In most of the country, widely recognized candidates like Mr.
>           McCain have to spend little or no resources qualifying for
> primaries.
>
>           In New York, Mr. McCain spent nearly $200,000 to get on the
>           ballot in 19 districts; Mr. Forbes spent nearly $700,000, his
> lawyers
>           said this week, to qualify statewide.
>
>           The New York system is laden with requirements, but the two that
>           Judge Korman overturned became touchstones in the debate over
>           whether the rules were unfair. Candidates qualify for the
primary
>           district by district, and one of the requirements mandated that
>           people who circulate petitions in a district either be
Republicans
>           residing in the district or notaries public.
>
>           Candidates as a result were prohibited from sending groups of
>           volunteers across the state to collect signatures, and had to
>           establish organizations in all 31 districts. That was not a
problem
> for
>           a party favorite like Mr. Bush, who was assisted in the petition
>           gathering by hundreds of party regulars on the local level. But
it
>           proved a handicap for Mr. McCain, whose base was in Staten
>           Island, home of Guy V. Molinari, the borough president and his
>           state campaign chairman.
>
>           At hearings in the lawsuit, Judge Korman called this rule
bizarre.
> In
>           his decision released yesterday, he wrote that its purpose was
"to
>           disadvantage a candidate for president who does not enjoy the
>           support of the Republican State Committee." He noted that it
>           drastically reduced the pool of Republicans who could circulate
>           petitions from the 3.1 million in the state to the fraction
living
> in a
>           Congressional district.
>
>           Judge Korman also threw out another rule that he seemed to find
>           just as maddening. It required people who sign petitions to list
> their
>           town, rather than their village. Citing this technicality, local
>           Republicans on Long Island were able to disqualify thousands of
>           signatures on Forbes and McCain petitions. Long Island has a few
>           large towns made up of many villages, and most people use their
>           villages as their addresses.
>
>           While Mr. Bush had the state party's help, he was actually
thrown
>           off the ballot in a district in the South Bronx because petition
>           gatherers forged signatures. In his decision, Judge Korman put
Mr.
>           Bush back on the ballot in the district, apparently to ensure
that
> all
>           four candidates had the same chance.
>
>           Aides to Mr. Pataki appeared relieved yesterday that the ballot
>           battle was over and that they had taken away an issue from Mr.
>           McCain. "It gave the McCain campaign the ability to talk about
>           something that is not of great significance to the average
voter,"
>           said Zenia Mucha, a spokeswoman for Mr. Pataki.
>
>           Asked about future primaries, Ms. Mucha said the party would
>           study the judge's decision and "see how we can address this to
>           make it a much fairer and better system."
>
>           John R. Cuti, a lawyer for Mr. McCain, said the party would have
>           no choice. He said the legal and public relations fallout from
the
>           fight would reverberate into 2004.
>
>           "Senator McCain was not going to accept a deal that merely put
>           him on the ballot," said Mr. Cuti, a partner at the firm of
Emery,
>           Cuti, Brinckerhoff & Abady. "He wanted real reform and we got
it."