The kerfuffle in New Mexico that resulted from US Attorney David Iglesias' dismissal began in August 2004 when Republicans were worried about Democrats taking the state in the November presidential election. According to a report coming up in tomorrow's New York Times, it all began with some kids receiving voter cards in the mail.
A 15-year-old boy received a voter registration card in the mail. Soon a second one arrived. Then his 13-year-old neighbor got one, too. Neither boy had applied for the cards, and it looked as if their signatures and birthdates had been forged. It was August 2004, and the local authorities quickly traced the problems to a canvasser for a liberal group that had signed up tens of thousands of voters for the presidential election in this swing state.
The state party asked David Iglesias to investigate. He did. He found nothing that would give him a prosecutable case.
To appear even-handed, Mr. Iglesias set up a bipartisan task force with state officials to look into the matter. But soon after announcing his plan, he received an e-mail message from Mickey D. Barnett, a Republican lawyer who represented the Bush campaign in New Mexico, urging him just to bring federal charges against any violators.
Culling through about 100 tips about fraud, investigators found only a handful that had some merit, and “only one where we had a real shot,” Mr. Iglesias said.
That inquiry focused on the woman who had submitted the registration applications in the names of the teenagers and at least two dozen others. Mr. Iglesias said she had worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, which had paid her and others in part based on how many applications they turned in.
He said that when the F.B.I. interviewed her, she did not make any clear admission of guilt. And under federal election law, Mr. Iglesisas said, prosecutors would have had to prove that the woman, who had been fired for other reasons, had falsified the applications with the intent of influencing the election. Mr. Iglesias said “it appeared she was just doing it for the money.”
The New Mexico Republican Party freaked even though Iglesias' bosses at Justice gave him a "glowing evaluation" and never told him about any complaints. Party leaders in the state evidently felt that Iglesias, a Republican appointed by Republicans, owed them a conviction no matter what. And the story takes off from there. Apparently President Bush got the Justice Department involved.
Mr. Bush, while meeting with members of Congress on Capitol Hill last October, heard complaints about inaction on voter fraud cases, an administration official said.
Bush talked to Attorney General Gonzales.
“The reaction from the attorney general when the president raised it is, ‘I know about those issues,’ ” Dan Bartlett, an aide to Mr. Bush, said last week. “The Justice Department, themselves, were receiving very similar phone conversations.”
David Iglesias' name was put on the list of dismissals.
Mr. Weh, the state Republican chairman, recalls saying something like “Hallelujah” to himself when he heard the news from Karl Rove at a holiday party in Washington. Mr. Domenici’s chief of staff “is happy as a clam,” one White House official said in an e-mail message on Dec. 7, the day of the firing. “Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow,” said a second e-mail message from a Justice official. “(not even waiting for Iglesias’s body to cool).”
Them New Mexico Republicans clams ain't so happy these days, I figure.
