Living the Life of Riley

Alleged double voter Donovan Riley still hasn't dropped out of the Wisconsin 7th Senate District race.

From The Mlwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Donovan Riley is still in the race for a state Senate seat, as officials probe an allegation he voted twice in the 2000 election.

Tom Leach, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, said today that the board will refer the matter to local prosectors next week.

Reached by phone, Riley said only that he was still running for the seat now held by incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Plale, of South Milwaukee. Riley declined further comment, saying he wasn't "at liberty" to discuss the voting matter.

Bob Schwoch, who said he was acting as a spokesman for Riley, said Riley was "still in the race until he announces otherwise... he has not dropped out."

I can understand why Riley doesn't want to drop out.

He probably wants to avoid anything that might remotely suggest an admission of guilt. His lawyer could be advising him to just keep his mouth shut.

It's hard to campaign for office by keeping one's mouth shut.

Yes, Herb Kohl has that method of campaigning down to a science, but he's an exception. That approach only works for candidates with massive personal fortunes.

Anyway, it's a little late for Riley to keep quiet. He already is on the record as saying, "My best recollection is that I was splitting my time between Wisconsin and Illinois and it's possible I made a mistake."

Riley has to regret that statement.

I think it's incredibly selfish of him to stay in the race, mainly because he is such an embarrassment to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Even more embarrassing than Riley's alleged wrongdoing is the failure of prominent Wisconsin Dems to call for him to drop out.

The absolute worse case scenario for the Dems would be for Riley to remain in the race and beat Plale in the primary.

It would be a perfect illustration of how demented the far Left state Dems are. It would show that they are so extreme that they don't care if a candidate committed voter fraud. It would reveal that they have very little respect for the law.

Republicans could get a lot of mileage out of that one.