JPol (Jerry Policoff) gave me permission to reprint his letter to Sen. John Kerry:
Dear Mr. Kerry;
I cannot believe that you have the audacity to promote “count every vote” on your web site.
Have you forgotten that you ran in 2004 on the promise that “this time every vote will count?”
Have you forgotten that you collected tens of millions of dollars for a special fund from your naive supporters designed to help you fulfill that pledge?
Surely you have not forgotten that you conceded the election with nary a peep despite evidence of massive fraud in Ohio and several other states. Many of your former supporters wonder what ever became of the money you collected to insure that “every vote would count,” but that you never spent, at least not toward its intended purpose.
Continued BELOW:
Your current activities make it quite clear that you are again seeking the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 2008 despite your failure to insure the integrity of the voting process in 2004.
That is an insult to all those who voted for you expecting you to keep your promise.
Far worse, you are once again championing “Count Every Vote.” That is like George W. Bush championing Gold Star Mothers For Peace.
You are a hypocrite, Mr. Kerry, and a patronizing one at that. How dare you think we would fall for your phony commitment to fight for the integrity of the voting process twice.
If you are ever again on a national Democratic ticket I will vote independent.
Jerry Policoff — JPol
My only comment: Right on, brother. To BEG people, during the fall of his 2004 campaign, to donate to a post-election vote count fight, and then to save it for his 2008 race (except for a few dollars here and there to other Democrats), is disgusting, low, and dishonest.
Didn’t Kerry just recently pull out of the court case in Ohio regarding the voting procedures????
Yes, Parker, I think you’re right about that. Sigh.
This is just one more sadness on top of the lot we’ve already got. There goes my vote too.
to a high standard or else we fail miserably as citizens. We could also hold the repubs to a high standard, but they are like NOLA – under water as far as ethics goes and a toxic soup of idiotology and cronyism.
And when the great state of Ohio was rife with voter fraud, John Kerry said, “um… send Jessie Jackson?”
My wife (a republican “AAAACK!”) voted for Kerry in 2004 and even contributed to the legal fund to make sure every vote was counted. (Yes, she voted bush in 2000)
Do you think we are very happy about hearing this in our household?
Okay, if no one else is gonna, I guess I’m going to have to defend Kerry. I know we’re all hurt/disappointed/enraged etc., by the concession, but all of this blaming of him is not realistic. He promised to count every vote and has helped to count every vote. I have read many outraged claims about the fund money, none of which has turned out to be true. He may not have had the best campaign, but I believe he is a good man and probably the best for the job of fixing our current problems. He’s meticulous and principled. Out… Read more »
He promised to count every vote and has helped to count every vote.
No he hasn’t…
Oh? Examples, please.
Are we talking about the same John Kerry? I’ll give you his courageous stance on Iran-Contra, but that was ages ago, and frankly, I suspect he was taken aside on that one and told that rocking those boats was not the way to get ahead in the Senate. He hasn’t taken on anything like that since, and after the issue died a quiet death he never sought to revive it. You imply that Kerry did not have a huge fund set aside for the purpose of fighting post-election legal battles. He certainly did. I and many people I know contributed… Read more »
The last paragraph: “… On February 17th Kerry, Senators Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg introduced S 450 the “Count Every Vote Act of 2005” to fully fund the Help America Vote Act, fund the activities of the Election Assistance Commission, and help states invest in better voting machines with paper trails. …” …which I take to say, that the “count every vote” effort is not going to go away; as easily as the Republicans, the Republican controlled Courts and the Republican Paid-For-Press would like. …and if you can’t remember the exact amount collected then research it rather than… Read more »
I really do not feel the need to research to the penny how much Kerry collected in his special litigation fund. It is not relevent. What is relevent is that he made a campaign pledge and collected money for the express purpose of keeping that pledge. Then he walked away while others litigated. He tacitly supported the efforts of others, but did not assist them in paying for the expensive litigation they undertook. We voters footed that bill because Kerry chose not to. The issue is not whether Kerry won or lost. the issue is the integrity of our elections.… Read more »
I’m not keen on the fellow. But I wasn’t for him for years before I ever saw a blog, wrote on a blog, or heard of Pat Lang. I was vehemently opposed to him from early on in the primary – and that’s about a year and a half before I ever posted on a blog. I was willing to support Howard Dean, John Edwards, or Gen. Wesley Clark but knew that Gephardt and Kerry could not win, and opposed both. However, when he became the nominee, I supported him fully. I can’t tell you how many times I replaced… Read more »
maybe it’s just running too fast, a lost detail here or there… but if you’re going to promote cranky frontpagers, you’re going to get cranky responses. And I am feeling cranky. Now about Kerry, this is at least the third front page dig. I get the message. I really do. And that’s fine. Really. And jpol just wants to rant. Fine. Really. As an aside, I don’t watch TV so my impressions are not tinted by spin; but out of the entire field, Kerry is the only one with the experience and tenacity to take apart the Republican Neocon Machine.… Read more »
I was never implying that he did not collect a substantial fund for post election battles. I know he did. I also know he had over 17,000 lawyers and I’ve yet to see any court filings that they were not involved in, even if Kerry wasn’t named. So far as I’ve heard, the Kerry/Edwards lawyers supported every effort for months. It seems to me the point of disagreement is his concession. I was as disappointed as anyone, but the fact remains that it had nothing to do with legally giving up or not fulfilling his promise to count the votes.… Read more »
I’ll let this story from Raw Story speak to the issue of Kerry’s support for those post-election battles: Green Party’s Cobb Says Kerry Is Thwarting Recount The Raw Story/John Byrne | December 17 2004 In an exclusive interview with RAW STORY Friday, the Green Party’s presidential candidate David Cobb lashed out at Sen. John Kerry, saying he Democratic nominee has tried to “undermine,” “delegitimize” and “minimize” the Ohio recount. Cobb, who ran an unsuccessful bid for president, is at the vanguard of the Ohio recount. The Green and Libertarian Parties raised tens of thousands of dollars to pay for the… Read more »
I’ll let this story speak for itself then: Writing for the Star Tribune on December 2, Cobb publicized that he has a “statutory right to demand a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio.” He claims to want every vote to be counted, and every voice to be heard. Sure he does, but what’s he getting in return? And if ol’ Cobb is so concerned with allowing everybody to have a political voice, why did he run a safe-state campaign this year, where he neglected to represent voters in all 50 states? So what’s the catch? Revamped thanks to a… Read more »
I know little about Cobb. I do know that I was watching post-election developments closely. There was never any hope that the challenges would be taken seriously unless Kerry took an active role. I saw no evidence that he did that, and obviously Cobb didn’t either. Can you cite any? I felt Kerry let us down. Maybe I missed something. Show me some evidence that I did. The evidence is clear that before the election Kerry made it clear that any irregularities would be dealt with by his legal team, funded by our contributions that were specifically earmarked toward that… Read more »
The Kerry Campaign had over 17,000 lawyers nationwide, including 2000 in Florida. They filed lawsuits across the country in the weeks before the election in states with policies they believed would disenfranchise voters, including in Ohio, Michigan, and Florida. They had observers in every county in the swing states during the election itself. They had a network to report irregularities immediately. They observed the counts where possible and filed motions to preserve the ballots and make sure the process was transparent. They filed briefs and joined legal efforts in Ohio, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, and Washington, among other… Read more »
I’ll just say it first so people know where I stand. I don’t want Kerry running for president in 2008. I busted my hump for him in 2004 at Dean’s request. I am NOT doing it again even if Dean asks me to do it. Life is too fscking short already. However, to be fair, I understand that there were three court cases in Ohio and Kerry withdrew from only one of them. I think Kerry set a terrible example by conceding before I had even gotten my second cuppa joe after all that tough talk. And then hanging… Read more »
He asked for donations so that they could litigate…
“The legal fund”
It was extra donations that were SUPPOSED to be used to LITIGATE…
Kerry barely used “the legal fund” and didn’t even show up for the recount himself.
Meanwhile after the election the Greens and Naderites were all over the place doing the counting and the litigating.
The Greens and Naderites did fight hard, but Kerry’s lawyers were there as well, fighting with them. It was Nader himself who was yelling to the press about Kerry not doing enough. Kerry’s lawyers were very involved in all of the litigation. They were also instrumental in the Cobb and Badnarik challenges.
I beg to differ. Kerry did belatedly sign on to the complaint, but only after being roundly attacked for not doing so. He kept a very low profile in his support and, in fact, made some public statements that were at best not helpful. He also did not assist in paying for the litigation. Cobb was openly critical of Kerry’s “efforts” on behalf of this litigation.
I understand that with the current administration in charge it seems there are no rules any more, but there are some. One is that Kerry is not allowed to pay for another politician’s litigation from his own funds. He cannot validly be criticized for that. It’s like criticizing Gore for not demanding a statewide recount of Florida — that was not a legal option. It’s a false grievance. Kerry got involved in all the litigation with his own lawyers that he paid for. There have been several media tempests saying this or that about his legal fund and every… Read more »
Excuse me. Kerry set up a separate fund so he could litigate. There may be legalities that prevented him from supporting other litigants, but then how did he come up with $100,000 to assist the Gubernatorial challenge in Washington State. And why didn’t he litigate himself? If he thought the other challenges had enough merit for him to support them, why didn’t he preempt the field and file his own litigation? Isn’t that why he said he needed all that money? I see a lot of excuses and not mut logic here.
of where the money in the ‘litigation’ fund went?
I would be willing to lay down my battleaxe long enough to read through it and ‘re-decide’ if Kerry did the right thing with the money.
How about everybody else?
If Kerry has not done the right thing, then we can pummel the shit out of his primary run, OK?
LL
I’m not sure what your last sentence means, but I sure would like to know where all that money went. I want to make it clear that I bear Kerry no ill will. I will never again support a Kerry run for the presidency, but I would gladly embrace him as a leader of the Democratic party. In my mind he has a lot to offer, but not as the party standard bearer. His presidential ambitions are the only thing I take issue with, and the reason for my opposition to him on that score is that I believe he… Read more »
but Kerry’s lawyers were there as well, fighting with them Filing “friend of the court” papers is not fighting, and to be frank and honest about it: Kerry didn’t show up FOR HIS OWN FIGHT. The point of it all is that he promised to fight to make sure all of the votes were counted properly. He didn’t. He quit being a credible leader when he conceded. That isn’t even getting into the failure of a campaign both he and Edwards ran… With bush’s performance in the first time the race should never have even been close… But those two,… Read more »
I appreciate what you’re saying and share your reservations about his ever running again — the campaign sucked in my opinion. That said, the specific accusations in this thread are baseless. In that one case he filed a friend of the court brief. There are many other legal cases his legal team is and was involved in. Specifically, the charge has been made here that Kerry raised money for legal fees and litigation and that he has not spent it in legal fees and litigation in order to save it for a future campaign. This is patently false. Perhaps he’s… Read more »
I don’t know all the details about the vote count funds themselves, but for Kerry to reprise his “count every vote” slogan after conceding so abruptly in ’04 is disgraceful. When I saw him standing with the Grand Canyon behind him saying that even if he knew then what he knows now that he still would have supported the Iraq invasion, I knew he was a shitbird who’s only qualification was a negative one; that he was not as bad as the imbecile Bush. Maybe he and Hillary will damage each other as they compete within the DLC corporate arena.… Read more »
I think this issue deserves another diary that deals with all the legal and political issues raised in the comments. Unfortunately, I’m not the one to write it (since I don’t have that knowledge). But I think that everyone could profit from a thorough, factual presentation of what Kerry did and what he did not do.
I think this issue deserves another diary that deals with all the legal and political issues raised in the comments. I think you are right there. But I also think that now is the time that we need to bring all of our efforts to the ’06 Senate races, and then after all of the votes are in there look at what strategies and candidates lie further ahead in ’08. That is one of the things that really started to piss me off at dKos… Way too much campaigning for ’08 when there are just too many hills to climb… Read more »
It’s true that we need to be investing a lot of effort, in fact most of our effort, in the ’06 races (not just Senate, but Congressional and local). But I don’t think that all our effort could or should go toward that goal. There are so many things to be done. Determining Kerry’s culpability is, granted, not a life or death matter, but it is emotionally important to those of us who contributed to him. And emotions do matter. Resolving questions such as “What did Kerry do and what did he not do?” requires a different kind of energy,… Read more »