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The Raw Story |
The permanent Republican majorityThe permanent Republican majorityThe permanent Republican majorityThe permanent Republican majority
How a coterie ofHow a coterie ofHow a coterie ofHow a coterie ofRepublican heavyweights sent a governor to jailRepublican heavyweights sent a governor to jailRepublican heavyweights sent a governor to jailRepublican heavyweights sent a governor to jail
Larisa Alexandrovna andLarisa Alexandrovna andLarisa Alexandrovna andLarisa Alexandrovna andMuriel KaneMuriel KaneMuriel KaneMuriel Kane Published: Monday November 26, 2007Published: Monday November 26, 2007Published: Monday November 26, 2007Published: Monday November 26, 2007
Part one of a Raw Story Investigates series on thearchitects and the execution of backroomRepublican politicsFor most Americans, the very concept of politicalprisoners is remote and exotic, a practice that isassociated with third-world dictatorships but isforeign to the American tradition. The idea that aprominent politician -- a former state governor --could be tried on charges that many observersconsider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trialthat involved numerous questionable procedures,and then hauled off to prison in shacklesimmediately upon sentencing would be almostunbelievable.But there is such a politician: Don Siegelman,Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003.Starting just a few weeks after he took office,Siegelman was targeted by an investigationlaunched by his political opponents and escalatedfrom the state to the federal level by BushAdministration appointees in 2001.Siegelman was ultimately charged with 32 counts ofbribery and other crimes in 2005, just as he beganto attempt a political comeback. He was convictedthe following year on seven of those charges. Lastsummer, Siegelman was sentenced to seven years inprison and immediately whisked off to a series ofout-of-state jails, not even being allowed toremain free on bond while his appeal was underway.Shortly before the sentencing, however, suspicionsexpressed by Alabama observers that there wassomething "fishy" about the case -- as ScottHorton of Harper's Magazine would later put it --began to reach the national stage. What initiallyappeared to be merely a whiff of possiblepolitical corruption became something stronger,with allegations that Karl Rove and the BushJustice Department had been operating behind thescenes. And yet, despite these suspicions and the
 
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attempts of a few journalists to bring them togreater notice, Siegelman's case remains virtuallyunknown to most of America.As a result, RAW STORY Investigates has decided tofocus a series of reports, interviews, andinvestigative pieces over the next several weekson Siegelman’s case. At the very least, theinvestigation will illuminate an incestuous poolof corruption in Alabama, with governmentofficials, lobbyists, attorneys, and even judgesbehaving in ways that breach the public trust.Part one: Don Siegelman, political prisonerGovernor Don Siegelman was a popular Democraticpolitician in a largely Republican state and wasthe only person in Alabama history to hold all ofthe state's highest posts. He served as AttorneyGeneral, Secretary of State, Lieutenant Governorand finally as Governor from 1999 to 2003.On Election Day in November 2002, when the pollshad closed and the votes were being counted, itseemed increasingly apparent that GovernorSiegelman had been victorious in his re-electionbid against Republican challenger Bob Riley. Butthen -- just as in the infamous Florida electionof 2000 -- something strange happened in thetallying of the votes. - Click here to see a timeline of the case.As CNN reported at the time, there appeared to betwo different sets of numbers coming through forone particular Alabama county:“The confusion stems from two sets of numbersreported by one heavily Republican district,” thenetwork stated.“Figures originally reported by Baldwin Countyshowed Siegelman got about 19,000 votes there,making him the state's winner by about two-tenthsof 1 percent,” its reporter added. “But hoursafter polls closed, Baldwin County officials saidthe first number was wrong, and Siegelman hadreceived just less than 13,000. Those figureswould make Riley the statewide winner by about3,000 votes.”"Sometime after midnight, after the poll watcherswere sent home, a small group there decided torecount the votes a third time," Siegelman told anews conference at the time. "No watchers legallyentitled to be present were notified -- and then adifferent total was established."The following morning, Alabama saw a new governordeclaring victory in the election. But the storydidn’t end there. It was only the beginning of acase that would turn the politics of dirty tricksinto something far more sinister.Riley's electoral victory rested on a razor-thinmargin of 3,120 votes. According to officialreports, Baldwin County conducted a recountsometime in the middle of the night on Nov. 6,when the only county officers and election
 
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supervisors present were Republicans. It wasduring this second recount that the shift in votesfrom Siegelman to Riley appeared. Although variouscomputer “glitches” and technical anomaliesoccurred across the state, it is widelyacknowledged that the Baldwin County recount iswhat decisively delivered needed votes to theRiley camp.State and county Democrats quickly requestedanother Baldwin County recount with Democraticobservers present, as well as a state-widerecount. But before the Baldwin County DemocraticParty canvassing board could act, Alabama’sRepublican Attorney General William Pryor had theballots sealed.Unless Siegelman filed an election contest in thecourts, Pryor said, county canvassing boardsthroughout the state did not have the authority“to break the seals on ballots and machines undersection 17-9-31” of the constitution.But at the same time, other, more embarrassingquestions involving the Riley camp and AlabamaRepublican officials appeared to have fallen offthe radar.Embarrassing questionsA RAW STORY investigation shows that as early as1998, when Siegelman was first elected governor,Alabama corporate interests already saw him as alooming threat. (See timeline.) These interestswere aligned with GOP operatives who would emergeagain during the 2002 election cycle.One of those well-known Republican operatives wasWilliam "Bill" Canary, who was a longtime Alabamahired gun before he became a Bob Riley campaignadvisor in 2002. In 1994, Canary -- whose focus atthe time was on defeating Democratic judges inAlabama -- brought in outside help in the form ofyet another GOP operative by the name of Karl Rove.At that time, Rove had been active in Republicanpolitical campaigns for more than 15 years and hadrecently been hired as an advisor to George W.Bush's campaign for governor of Texas. A widerpublic would learn of Rove only six years later,when he was tapped as Bush’s White House DeputyChief of Staff after the 2000 election. Rove'sname would then appear in almost every scandalinvolving the Bush White House, the most infamousof which involved revealing the name of a covertCIA officer as political retribution for herhusband’s refusal to endorse bogus intelligenceleading up to the Iraq war.Rove and Canary managed Attorney General WilliamPryor's re-election campaign in 1998. It was Pryor
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