CAN YOU BE BOUGHT FOR $5?

Garrett L. Huff

This man has been criminally charged for paying people $5 to vote for Michael McGee.

I wonder if Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett regrets saying that voter fraud in the city was just a figment of conservatives' imaginations.

Each day it seems that Barrett has more and more to regret.


From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A secret John Doe investigation into irregularities during the recall campaign of Ald. Michael McGee yielded its first criminal charges Thursday, against a McGee campaign worker accused of paying people to vote.

The criminal complaint says that Garrett L. Huff, believed to be McGee's uncle, was "acting in concert" with McGee when he paid people $5 to vote absentee in the recall.

Huff is "believed to be McGee's uncle."

Given McGee's multiple identities and Social Security numbers, I suppose it is difficult to determine his relatives.

The charges come just days after McGee's Memorial Day arrest on state and federal criminal counts. Federal authorities say he took bribes and extorted money from people who wanted favorable treatment for liquor licenses and other matters. State prosecutors charge that McGee conspired to "beat down" a teenager suspected of burglarizing McGee's godfather's home.

As the complaint against Huff was being filed at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, Common Council President Willie Hines Jr. was calling for city administrators to review all license applications and other city business under way in McGee's district.

"It is vital that the integrity of the city and the city services not be compromised in any way. . . . Someone needs to look out for the 6th Aldermanic District," Hines said.

McGee, 37, remained in the Milwaukee County Jail on Thursday on $100,000 bail. Huff, 58, of Milwaukee, worked as a driver for the McGee campaign, according to a criminal complaint. His job was to drive people to City Hall if they wanted to vote early by absentee ballot in the April 3 recall election - which McGee easily won.

McGee campaign fliers promised free food and drink to people who showed up at certain locations with an "I Voted" sticker, the complaint says. Instead of food, the voters got cash, the complaint says.

Three undercover police officers were paid to vote as part of the scheme, the complaint says, and a fourth, who claimed he couldn't vote because he was on parole, was given $5 for bringing one of the others.

On March 15, the first officer went to Mother's Foods, 2879 N. 16th St., and approached a campaign worker, the complaint says. He told her he heard people could get $5 for voting.

The woman "then began to speak in a whisper and stated that an 'incentive' was available and it might be more than five dollars," the complaint says. "The campaign person then stated in a hushed voice that the incentive was illegal."

Huff drove the officer to City Hall to cast an absentee ballot. When the officer got back in the car, Huff gave him $5, the complaint says. Later that day, another undercover officer who needed a ride was told to call McGee's cell phone to arrange it, the complaint says.

If convicted, Huff faces a maximum penalty of 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

I wonder if Huff will be treated with as much mercy as U.S. Representative Gwen Moore's son Sowande Omokunde received when he was convicted in connection with vandalism intended to disenfranchise Republican voters.

I don't know. Maybe the Milwaukee libs are beginning to get a little embarrassed by the bad name that McGee and his army of crooks and thugs are giving city Democrats.

Maybe not. Some people have no shame.

I'll make this short and sweet--

McGee is a disgrace.

Huff is a disgrace.

All the Milwaukee leaders who insisted that the city's elections are clean should be ashamed for trying to sell the citizens on that lie.

Even more than these losers, and they are LOSERS, I am thoroughly disgusted with the people who accepted five bucks to cast a vote for McGee.

Think of the Americans who struggled, fought, and died for our freedom and our right to vote and to determine the makeup of our government.

The people who sold their votes make me sick.

They sold their voices for $5.

PATHETIC.