Republican ‘doctrine’ on suppressing black vote is key to Md. case, and maybe to 2012

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

In a room last summer, the brain trust behind the only Republican governor to lead Maryland since Spiro Agnew sat thumbing through a campaign strategy to suppress turnout among the state’s black voters.

It was a document that could have seemed like a relic, more likely to be found in a campaign office during the time of Agnew and the 1960s civil rights movement than during a campaign in 2010 to reelect former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Now, the document in the hands of the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor. It constitutes the centerpiece of indictments issued this week that that accuse one of Ehrlich’s most trusted aides, as well as a campaign consultant, of conspiring to suppress the black vote last year.

For the defense, the document is no less important. The voter suppression strategy was flatly rejected by those present at the meeting last summer, according to an attorney for Paul Schurick, Ehrlich’s de facto campaign manager, and the apparent inspiration for the document’s namesake, “The Schurick Doctrine.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/republican-doctrine-on-suppressing-black-vote-is-key-to-md-case-and-maybe-to-2012/2011/06/17/AGKPaSZH_story.html

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Julius Henson, owner of Universal Elections, is accused of being involved in "robo-call" that played erroneous information to at least 50,000 potential voters on Election Day. He is to be arraigned July 18. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)

[drm604]

1. K&R

I wish I could say I was surprised by this, but I'm not. This is SOP for Republicans.

[CarmanK]

5. they always have a black guy in the mix somewhere!!

the repugs bring in the token black to be the face of whatever scheme they are up to next either to suppress voter's rights or to confuse minorities. Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, definitely mentally challenged, but obedient to Roberts, Alito and Scalia. then of course, they thought they had a patsy in Michael Steele when they made him Chair of the RNC. The repugs got their black face to counter Obama and prove they were not racists. Michael Steele did get the best of that deal. He spent the RNC money and had a good time. And now, we have a campaign aide who is charged with voter suppression. Of course, he has a black face. But, what is interesting is that this is just one of the tactics these guys have tried to get Ehrlich elected. The campaign was fined for busing in workers to PG County to distribute political pamphlets with incorrect candidate information. Confuse and discourage a repug mantra. I guess they figured, that if they only got fined the first time around, that they would risk that again, if they could suppress the vote and win. I am so glad the judicial system is catching up with them.

[QuintanarooBoy]

2. The GOP: Maintaining Racism, Regardless of State

:puke:

[999998th word]

3. Where are the plans to mitigate the damages done

by all of the voter repression bills being passed by all of the state houses??

ALEC model legislation hard at work.

This is poised to do real damage in 2012 cycle.Time to move on this is now.

You only get to vote for a dictator once.

[The Second Stone]

4. It sounds like a conspiracy to commit a felony

to make voting difficult for people.