Republicans take new Obama political director to task for ’04 efforts in Ohio

By Justin Miller, PolitickerOH.com Reporter

Republicans are attacking Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his presidential campaign over his new political director who was accused of using felons to get out the vote for the 2004 presidential election in Ohio.

The Obama campaign announced yesterday that Patrick Gaspard will be its new national political director. Gaspard, a New York labor official, was the national field director for America Coming Together during the 2004 cycle. That year the Associated Press reported that ACT under Gaspard paid convicted felons to canvass homes and solicit private information (including Social Security numbers) from voters as part of its GOTV effort. The AP also noted that it is not illegal for felons to canvass, though they are not allowed to vote.

An AP review of criminal and campaign finance records “revealed that the names and hometowns of dozens of ACT employees in Missouri, Florida and Ohio matched those of people convicted of crimes such as burglary, forgery, drug dealing, assault and sex offenses.”

The Obama campaign did not respond to requests for comment by PolitickerOH.com. If and when the campaign responds, PolitickerOH.com will post the response.

While felons on parole are ineligible to vote in many states, the AP referenced an elections expert saying that he was “unaware of any laws against felons registering other people to vote.”

“Barack Obama routinely promises voters that he will deliver ‘change you can believe in,’ but his decision to hire Patrick Gaspard as national political director demonstrates yet again that his claims of change are all talk,” said RNC spokesperson Liz Mair. “Given America Coming Together’s history in the Buckeye State, it is clear that despite Obama’s talk of change, he’s just another politician playing the tired politics of the past.”

That’s exactly opposite the message that the Obama campaign tried to play up while announcing Gaspard’s hiring.

“This election offers a clear choice between John McCain’s agenda for continuing the failed policies of George W. Bush, and Barack Obama’s vision for change,” Gaspard said, according to a Obama press release, as reported by the New York Daily News.

Ohio Republican Party communications director John McClelland said Gaspard and ACT’s 2004 efforts threatened the integrity of the election and that his hire sends the wrong message to voters.

“Everything Obama does is about messaging. The entire campaign is scripted. We’re interested in the integrity of elections and the organization that [Gaspard] was involved in... was an attempt to undermine that. That’s the not right kind of message that Senator Obama or the Democrat Party in general should be sending, especially when Senator Obama campaigns on changing the way our politics is done,” McClelland said.

Justin Miller is a PolitickerOH.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

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