August
2006
Right Wing Bloggers Lie about Sullivan to Bolster Reynolds
State Senator Tom Reynolds booster and GOP apologist Bob Dohnal has outdone himself this time.
Dohnal is alledging that State Senate Candidate Jim Sullivan voted twice in an election in Shorewood. He's getting his facts wrong on so many levels. (Check out his bogus claim yourself on the GOP blog, Boots and Sabers).
Republicans have been attacking Sullivan since 2000 when he first ran for Alderman. At that time, GOP attack dog Michael Goggins filed a complaint alledgeing that Sullivan voted in the same election in both Whitefish Bay and in Wauwatosa.
Here's the problem with Dohnal's claim — Sullivan whose full name is James Owen Sullivan is a Jr. That's right, he shares a name with his Dad, James Owen Sullivan (Sr).
James O. Sullivan Sr who was born in 1936 lives in Whitefish Bay. James O Sullivan Jr who is in his 30's lives in Wauwatosa.
Here's where it gets even more interesting. The Whitefish Bay voter logs say that James Sullivan Jr who was born 10/27/36 voted in an election while living in the Bay. It lists his address as on Carlisle Street which is where the senior Sullivan lives. Clearly Whitefish Bay's election commission made a mistake by indicating that the Sullivan born in 1936 was the Jr Sullivan. Because of this, the complaint filed in the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office by Goggins was thrown out.
In a letter Watchdog Milwaukee has recieved dated March 28, 2000, Assistant District Attorney Kurt Kenkley, writes:
The Whitefish Bay voter history list fails to carefully distinguish James Sullivan, Sr. from James Sullivan, Jr. More specifically, the entry for "Sullivan, James (Jr.)" lists a date of birth of "10/27/36." James Sullivan, Jr., in fact, is just 32 years old. He was not born in 1936. This confusion as to voter identity renders Whitefish Bay voter history records as to James Sullivan, Jr. and James Sullivan Sr. unreliable and valueless.
On March 29th, 2000, both Bob Dohnal and Michael Goggins were served with a letter from Attorney Michael F. Hart to inform them that the information they were alledging was bogus. Hart states:
The purpose of this letter is to place you on formal notice that any further communication whether written or oral including but not limited to, the dissemination and/or distribution of campaign literature claiming that Mr. Sullivan engaged in illegal or improper conduct with respect to his voting history, place of residency and/or compliance with State election laws will be deemed actionable as knowing misstatements of fact, and we will take any and all legal action on behalf of Mr. Sullivan to enforce his rights.
And still, despite knowing he was lying, Dohnal today knowingly and intentionally claimed that Sullivan voted twice. Rather than just being happy with his original screw up, he's now claiming that Sullivan voted in Shorewood. Sullivan never lived in Shorewood.
Yet another interesting fact here is that Owen Robinson of Boots and Sabers just abandoned a HUGE amount of credibility by running a story that he either knew was untrue or Owen's sources handed him a story they knew to be untrue and did not tell him about the very relevant fact that the District Attorney's office called the basis for this complaint to be "unreliable and valueless". The real interesting thing here is to see how Owen handles this on his blog.
Check out the documents yourself by clicking HERE.
posted: 9:53pm
Post Publication Update: Another GOP Blogger, No Runny Eggs helping Dohnal to propogate the story he knows to be untrue. However, after publication of his column, Eggs says he's going to pull an open records request and assumably draw his own conclusions.
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Reynolds Watch, Watchdogging Campaigns
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The key is not the 1998 election, which apparently has a clerical error. It is the 1996 election, which has the correct birth date for Sullivan Jr.
Those voter history lists were sent to the DA who called them “unreliable and valueless” and yet, you published them on Boots and Sabers.
It’s your credibility on the line. I’ve got tons of stories in the que waiting to the published but until I can get verification of the facts, I’m not running with them. You made the choice to run with bogus claims and in doing so, you made a journalistic error. If you choose to not admit your mistake you surrender your credibility.
Here’s a follow up to the doctored document that Owen put on his blog.
Look closer.
The hand writing on the document you published (which apparently “enhanced” some of the dot matrix print) says:
James Sullivan … 12/26/67 … same as wife Carolyn (Tosa Also).
The Sullivan who is running for State Senate is married to Linda. Carolyn is his mother.
Sullivan’s Suposed Double Vote…
The drama behind Jim Sullivan’s voting record continues. Bill Christofferson writes the accusation of Sullivan voting twice in 1996 is……
Thanks for all of the publicity. Having you as an opponent is like being condemned by Gary George. You have no credibilty.
The records stand for themselves, but even more enlightenting is the fact that Sullivan didn’t bother to vote half the time when he isn’t voting twice.
What a leaker, not quite in your league, you guys managed to bankrupt a whole county, Sullivan defended the pension deal for Jasenski and schmidt..
McGuigan, can’t stand the heat? where di James Sr. vote? Why didn’t the DA take a sworn statement from him as to where he was and where he voted.
End of arguement, Sullivan voted twice and then didn’t even bother to vote in other elections.
This is old news dating back to a Wauwatosa aldermanic race; it was debunked years ago.
I would have figured Messrs. Dohnal and Zurawski to dust this off in the late weeks of the Reynolds campaign. It is curious that they played this card so soon.
I wonder what’s up….
Dohnal, you keep bringing up the credibility issue but it’s an issue you never back up with an example. On the other hand, I point out that you lied about someone elses voting record and then back it up with documents I’ve provided online and you attack me. Hmmm…
Once again you’re trying to deflect attention away from you lying and the lunacy that your man Tom Reynolds has been guilty of and the only way you can prop Reynolds up is by manufacturing this bogus claim against Sullivan?
It’s interesting that you didn’t pop here to comment on the story about Reynolds Right Wing Pharmacist (you) protection act.
I heard Belling talk about this today and he said it was bogus. Nobody is buying this fraudulant claim Dohnal.
That long-since-debunked claims disparaging Democrats continue to be pushed by the wingnut blogosphere is hardly a surprise; that sort of dishonesty is the first thing they teach you at the Michelle Malkin School Of Demagoguery. No, what blows me away is that some people are willing to overlook the facts in order to advance Tom Reynolds. Tom-freakin-Reynolds! This guy should scare the living hell out of anybody who can even SPELL “libertarian”.
Okay, that’s all. I gotta go rummage through my secretary’s purse to make sure she has her pocket bible with her today.
Dohnal Not Backing Down on Sullivan Double Voting Charge…
Bob Dohnal, long-time conservative activist and publisher of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest, is not backing down from his charge that……
Makes you wonder as to the truth of the allegations against Donovan Riley, doesn’t it?