Marshallgate: More Fallout in Clark County

It seems that Democrats in Clarksville have been paying Marshall for his "services", too:

County records show that Marshall was also paid $15,000 by a political action committee, or PAC, called the Clarksville Democrat Town Committee. According to a campaign finance report, the money was used for advertising.

It’s difficult to pin down exactly which town council candidates Marshall was working for in Clarksville. The town does not have a mayor.

Democrat Bob Liter said he was asked about it but did not give any money to the PAC to help pay for Marshall’s services. Democrat John Gilkey said his campaign operates an all-volunteer staff. He said he played no role in Marshall’s hiring and receives no financial support from the PAC.

Democrat Bob Polston said his understanding was that Marshall was working for all the Democrats, but wasn’t involved in him being hired and didn’t contribute to his payments.

“If he’s done something illegal, I’ll be the first to say ‘prosecute him,’” Polston said.

Democrats Paul Kraft and Don Tetley did not return a call for comment on the subject. Democrat David Fisher was reached for comment, but hung up on a reporter before he could be asked about it.

And the Clark County Republican Party, wisely, intends to look at every single absentee ballot touched by Marshall and those working with him.

Local GOP leaders say they plan to follow absentee ballot trends closely during the next two weeks, following the indictment of Democratic Party consultant Mike Marshall on voter fraud charges Friday.

The indictments — which included felony charges of voter fraud, forgery and perjury — were handed down by a grand jury in Jennings County. Marshall had been working on at least a few Democratic campaigns in Clark County, including the re-election campaign of Mayor Tom Galligan. He has since resigned.

“I think the Galligan campaign has had a history of manipulating absentee ballots,” said Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jamey Noel, referencing an investigation by a special prosecutor following the 2007 primary election.

“Here we are four years later, same song different dance,” he added.

Last week’s indictment stemmed from an investigation by the Indiana State Police. Galligan, along with campaign chairman Phil McCauley, denied any knowledge that Marshall was under investigation.

Noel said it’s an issue that transcends party lines, noting that the post-2007 primary investigation was initiated by Democratic former mayor Rob Waiz, who Galligan defeated then by more than 250 votes.

Following the 2007 primary, Waiz hired a former ISP officer as a private investigator to look into claims of irregularities with absentee ballots. Some of those voters told the investigator that campaign workers told them how to vote. In other instances, there were claims that people outside of the county were allowed to fill out ballots.

“I’m bothered by a few things,” [special prosecutor Ron] Simpson said in an interview with The Evening News in late 2008.

Simpson said that there were claims of irregularities — however, no one could specifically name the person committing the alleged wrongdoing. There were also differences between what the voters told the investigator and what they said under oath, Simpson said.

This comment by Simpson is very interesting.

Continuing...

“I’ve got some serious concerns,” Noel said. “We’re going to investigate each ballot one-by-one.”

This is an important effort. I'm told that Marshall was involved in preparing 2,000 absentee ballots for Galligan's campaign (remember, only 6,500 were cast in the last election). That's $25 a piece at the rate Galligan was paying him.

If those ballots get into the vote pool, the entire election in Jeffersonville could well be tainted (as could the election in Clarksville if the same thing that happened in Jennings County in past years is happening there now). Once those ballots are in the pool, the cake is baked. I certainly hope it is not too late.

In his first interview since Marshall's indictment, Galligan hilariously danced around the entire thing:

WDRB News asked Galligan how this is affecting his campaign.

"What do you think that this says to your constituents -- this situation with Mike Marshall?" asked WDRB's Jennifer Baileys. "I mean, I know he's resigned, but he was a part of your campaign."

"He's not been convicted of anything," Galligan replied. "You can take a grand jury and get indicted on the color of your lipstick if they want to do that, but getting convicted is something else, and this was two years ago. Why is this just now coming up? Because there's an election and they're trying to sway the election."

It was not two years ago. It was less than a year ago. Last year's election.

Why is it now coming up? Because that's when the grand jury handed down its first indictments (and I'm told they're convening again to hear more evidence and perhaps to issue additional indictments).

It's true that Marshall hasn't been convicted. But 45 felony indictments are not something that can exactly be conjured out of thin air, either. It's not comparable to indicting someone for "the color of their lipstick."

Galligan is trying to obfuscate the point.

He paid Marshall a lot of money for campaign activity that was by no means as valuable as the amount he was paying him. That activity had to have some additional value to be worth the amount Galligan was paying.

I think we all know what that additional value was, and just what Galligan thought he was getting for all of that money.

I think that Terry Goodin, Dave Cheatham, Jim Lewis, and probably some folks in Clarksville know what that additional value was, too.

Right about now, they all might want to be thinking about whether jail jumpsuit orange is their color or not.

Galligan says this is sour grapes and a ploy by the Republicans before the election to sway voters.

Because a special prosecutor investigating something two counties away is really concerned about a race in a small city like Jeffersonville, and came up with sixty plus felony indictments against these people as a part of some vast evil Republican conspiracy to pick on poor little Tom Galligan. Yeah right. What a joke.

There are serious questions to be asked here.

What did Tom Galligan know and when did he know it?

What did the Clarksville Democrats know and when did they know it?

What did Marshall do for Galligan?

What was Marshall doing now?

Who did Marshall get to vote? Has anyone talked to them? What do they have to say?