In small-town Virginia - Scott County, Gate City -
the Republican candidate for governor (Jerry Kilgore) and his twin
brother (Terry Kilgore, who is running for re-election to his representative
office) the mother of the twins is the registrar for the county
and has been since 1979. At one point, in mid 1980's, Kilgore was
replaced when a Democratic group won elections in the city and county.
She sued and won her registrar position. She has employed her sister
for years, and her niece or another relative.
Now the problem is there has been a lawsuit by the mayor of Gate City
claiming all sorts of chicanery that took place during the recent election.
For the first time in Virginia history, a town council was unseated by a court
and a new town council was named by said court. The new town council
appointed the mayor - the person who filed the lawsuit. Now mind you,
the mayor is not a Democrat. He too is a Republican. But he was fed up
with the nepotism, the criminal activity involved with payments for votes
and with "messing with" absentee ballots to fix the election.
The lawsuit will no doubt linger in court until after Ms. Kilgore's sons are
elected to office, at which time the governor will find mommy not guilty or
will pardon her of all charges.
She has refused to step down, and now we have the "new" computerized voting machines
and there is no paper trail.
Her deception is complete. She can fix the election at her leisure and no one will know.
The problem is the whole mess has stayed on the local scene.
Had this been a Democrat running for governor I believe this would never have gotten
this far.
Strangely enough, the registrar's office is adjacent to the DMV
and the DMV's cameras have caught much of the criminal activity on tape.
Even so, Kilgore has denied any wrongdoing and has been able to get away with it.
I think something should be done, but since I work at a local newspaper -
a strong Republican and conservative paper - I am not allowed to get involved
with local politics.
No one is brave enough locally to bring this to the attention of the state-level
authorities.
Any suggestions?
Thanx.