Street Money

[TahoeHorn]

Are any of you familiar with specifics of street money?

Our Republican committee is always anxious to have poll watchers in the precincts where street money is used heavily. I have never volunteered to go to the training sessions or grilled any members about war stories but I'd like to know.

Several top Dem strategists have noted that street money is not a big factor in the primaries. Obama has been able to get the Black vote without it. I would be curious whether it will be required for the general election.

 

[triplehorn]

Joe Lieberman used 300k of street money in CT right at election time to fend off Democratic primary winner Ned Lamont from taking his Senate seat.

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[TahoeHorn]

triple,

Do you know how many votes that was for?

 

[triplehorn]

TH - One correction: the street money was distributed before the primary, not the election after Lieberman was forced to run as an independent. So Lamont won the primary despite Lieberman's grease.

The street money was noted by the Lamont campaign:

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[HornsInTheHouse]

What is "street money"?

 

[TahoeHorn]

If that's where you got the number you're WAAAAY low.

 

[triplehorn]

Way low for a primary?

Lieberman is a rabbi, so maybe that made up for it. Extra blessings or something.

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[washparkhorn]

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[HornsInTheHouse]

Wouldn't it be prohibitively expensive to buy votes in elections? Caucuses are the only venues I could see that working.

 

[TahoeHorn]

They'll spend an average of $10 per vote as is for just the Presidential election.

Note that you don't buy votes where it does no good (e.g. Utah or Massachusetts). Florida and Ohio are critical. Also note you get a straight ticket voter, not just a vote for Prez.

Poll watchers are well aware of the practices. To be blunt the biggest problem are Black churches closely followed by crooked rural poor White counties. A nice Dem can approach a pastor and discuss an interest in contributing to his church in celebration of getting a 800 vote margin in precinct 923. There's no law against contributing money to a Black church. Easier to stop are the guys that bring a bunch of senile people for the Tahoe nursing home. Even easier are the ones that bring a bus of winos. But without poll watchers precincts which run 95+ percent Dem can run up big numbers. We don't see the union deal here but it exists some places.

 

[HornsInTheHouse]

I don't mean to derail the thread but what do poll watchers do when they think they see such corruption?

 

[Brubricker]

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[TahoeHorn]

They call the party lawyers. Almost always they are successful in minimizing the activity and almost never is anything else done.

 

[Napoleon]

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[dognduckhorn]

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[DeadHorse]

Obama was the first to win South Carolina without significant "walking around money." The only reason he didn't use it was because Hillary had already bought everybody up.

My favorite guy was a preacher from Columbia who was also a "political consultant." That made the $300,000 payment seem legitimate.

 

[BattleshipTexas]

Someone with the right info should win a pulitzer.