With only half a year left until November's midterm election, congratulations are in order to Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Michael Brennan for finally providing a fitting end to the sorriest chapter of the state's 2004 presidential contest.
It was during that election, you may remember, that a group of young Milwaukeeans, including the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., made a midnight journey to the local GOP headquarters with the intent to engage in a round of pre-Election Day vandalism. The group, all staffers for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, slashed the tires of 25 vans rented by the Republican Party to drive voters to the polls in what proved to be an extremely close statewide election.
After shuffling his feet for a while, Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann charged five individuals with felonies in connection with the vandalism. During their trial in January, four of the five saboteurs reached plea deals to plead no contest to the lower charge of misdemeanor property damage, which carried a maximum sentence of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine. A fifth member of the group rejected the deal and was acquitted by a jury.
As part of the plea, the prosecution requested the four receive probation — and no jail time — so long as they pay restitution, a stipulation they met. It appeared the men would get off with a punishment that can be characterized as being only slightly worse than a slap on the wrist.
And then Judge Brennan made an unusual move Wednesday. A much needed one, as well.
He ignored the prosecution's recommendation, instead handing down jail time for all four men convicted in the case. Two of the men, Michael Pratt and Lewis Caldwell, were sentenced to six months; meanwhile Lavelle Mohammad was sentenced to five months and Sowande Omokunde, Ms. Moore's son, got four months.
Make no mistake: the 2004 tire-slashing case was not simply an instance of petty vandalism. Nor was it merely an example of partisan one-upsmanship gone too far. This was a full-frontal attack on the voting rights of law abiding citizens in Milwaukee — an attempt to suppress the democratic process and hurt those who dared to hold out-of-the-mainstream opinions in a largely liberal, urban area.
Judge Brennan's decision was a surprising but welcome salvo in the name of voting integrity in Wisconsin, a concept that has been shown considerable hostility by the state's left in recent years. To be sure, the vandalism that occurred in November 2004 was the act of individuals; though four of the men involved were paid Democratic staffers, it was not the reflection of a political party. Yet the concept of 'one man, one vote' has come under assault from the left lately in the political realm as well.
Gov. Jim Doyle has repeatedly vetoed attempts to institute a voter-ID requirement in the state, each time objecting under the guise that such a law — which would include a provision for providing free IDs to those without driver's licenses — would somehow disfranchise minorities and the poor. That, or maybe Mr. Doyle simply realizes that those who would have a much harder time voting under a voter ID requirement — felons, illegal immigrants and so on — are much more likely to vote for him, and not Mark Green, in November.
No matter what his true intentions are, Mr. Doyle is disfranchising honest voters who risk having their votes canceled out by fraudulent votes cast under Wisconsin's ridiculously liberal voter registration laws. If the Milwaukee tire-slashers took away citizen's civic rights through criminal conduct, Mr. Doyle is accomplishing the same thing through utter negligence. Allowing everyone and their dog to vote as often as possible may be better than allowing no one to vote, but only marginally so.
Still, perhaps the most glaring example of a lack a respect for voting rights in the state has come from none other than Ms. Moore herself, whose behavior throughout her son's trial has served only as a shameful continuation of a career that thus far can only be characterized as disgraceful.
While Ms. Moore has every right to stand by her son through a trying period, her accompanying rhetoric has been near frightening in its ignorance. After her son accepted the plea deal in January, Ms. Moore told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "I'm going to go forward and work to improve the criminal justice system so that it operates fairly."
Apparently in Ms. Moore's world, vandalizing 25 vans designed to assist people in carrying out their most sacred democratic right is not something that warrants criminal prosecution.
Or take this gem: prior to the plea deal, Ms. Moore repeatedly said a conviction on the original felony charges would amount to a "civic death penalty" for her son. Of course, confining hundreds of willing voters to their homes on Election Day could never be construed as a "civic death penalty" in Ms. Moore's mind, at least if they're not going to vote for her.
If citizens in Wisconsin's 4th Congressional District truly appreciate their ability to vote in a fair election, they'll deliver Ms. Moore a "political death penalty" in November.
Hopefully the Democratic Party's multi-front campaign against voting integrity in Wisconsin will go with her.
Ryan Masse ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and economics.
