hypocritexposer
Well-known member
What were some of the other ways obama tried to intimidate his opposition?
hypocritexposer said:What were some of the other ways obama tried to intimidate his opposition?
In his first race for office, seeking a state Senate seat on Chicago's gritty South Side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic competition.
As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers.
Obama's past battles
See how Barack Obama has used election rules to his advantage during his political career on AC 360.
Tonight, 10 p.m ET
The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district.
"That was Chicago politics," said John Kass, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist. "Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice." Watch how Obama shut out challengers in his first race »
Obama's challenge was perfectly legal, said Jay Stewart of the Chicago's Better Government Association. Although records of the challenges are no longer on file for review with the election board, Stewart said Obama is not the only politician to resort to petition challenges to eliminate the competition.
"He came from Chicago politics," Stewart said. "Politics ain't beanbag, as they say in Chicago. You play with your elbows up, and you're pretty tough and ruthless when you have to be. Sen. Obama felt that's what was necessary at the time, that's what he did. Does it fit in with the rhetoric now? Perhaps not."
The Obama campaign called this report "a hit job." It insisted that CNN talk to a state representative who supports Obama, because, according to an Obama spokesman, she would be objective. But when we called her, she said she can't recall details of petition challenges, who engineered them for the Obama campaign or why all the candidates were challenged.
But Will Burns does. Now running himself for a seat in the Illinois legislature, Burns was a young Obama volunteer during the presidential candidate's first race.
Burns was one of the contingents of volunteers and lawyers who had the tedious task of going over each and every petition submitted by the other candidates, including those of Alice Palmer.
"The rules are there for a reason," Burns said.
He said that challenging petitions is a smart way to avoid having to run a full-blown expensive race.
"One of the first things you do whenever you're in the middle of a primary race, especially in primaries in Chicago, because if you don't have signatures to get on the ballot, you save yourself a lot of time and effort from having to raise money and have a full-blown campaign effort against an incumbent," Burns said.
Burns said he believed that Obama did not enjoy using the tactic to knock off Palmer.
"It was not something he particularly relished," Burns said. "It was not something that I thought he was happy about doing." Watch Burns describe how Obama used the rules to his advantage »
But Obama did it anyway, clearing the field of any real competition.
Mike said:hypocritexposer said:What were some of the other ways obama tried to intimidate his opposition?
He brought out hidden details of an ugly divorce by one of his Illinois legislature opponents and threatened to tell all if he didn't withdraw. He did.