Mitt Romney Accused Of Voter Fraud

During last week's interview between long-shot GOP candidate Fred Karger and David Frost, Karger intimated that he was going to be "filing some papers" in Massachusetts over former Gov. Mitt Romney's residency status. Karger said the GOP primary frontrunner had "fudged a lot in his political career and I'm going to be calling him out on that." Well, courtesy of Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones, here's what Karger was talking about:

In his complaint, Karger lays out a chronology of Romney's real estate moves since his failed presidential bid in 2008. According to Karger's timetable, Romney and his wife, Ann, bought a $12.5 million home in La Jolla, California, in May 2008. ("I wanted to be where I could hear the waves," Romney told the AP of his move to the West Coast.) Thereafter, Romney became a regular at California political events, even campaigning for Meg Whitman during her gubernatorial bid. A year later, in April 2009, the Romneys sold their home in Belmont, Massachusetts, for $3.5 million, and registered to vote from an address in the basement of an 8,000 square-foot Belmont manse owned by their son Tagg. But where the Romneys really lived these past couple of years seems to be a bit of a mystery. While Romney was appearing at so many California political events people were speculating he was going to run for office there, the National Journal reported in May 2009 that the Romneys had made their primary residence a $10 million estate in New Hampshire.

The discrepancies in the news coverage prompted Karger to take a closer look, in part because he found it dubious that a guy worth $500 million would really be living in his son's basement.

What brings the allegation of voter fraud into this? Well, in the January 2010 special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat, Romney cast a mail-in ballot for Scott Brown. Of course, the fact that Romney was using his son's house at the time didn't escape notice: Here's a Jan. 8, 2010 item from Christina Bellantoni at Talking Points Memo, reporting the matter. At the time, Romney's spokesperson said that he "never gave up his Massachusetts residency." There seems to be no evidence that he cast ballots in any other state during this time.

Though Karger has made it his mission to do so, I'm not convinced that there's much here to derail Romney's run. That won't prevent all the various "Stop Mitt" forces from having themselves a look at the allegations. Go read the whole thing.

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Comments

[ScarlettSimpso]

09:11 PM on 07/01/2011

It's really scary that people actually take this guy seriously. When asked if he had to ask congress to go to war, he said he didn't have to and that he would ask his attorneys. I can't believe the stupid people in this country.

[elizabeth gerteiny]

12:28 PM on 06/20/2011

Now that Mitt Romney is officially running for president, Fred Karger, a lesser-known competitor for the nomination, is back in the news. He wants the fact well known of the fabulously wealthy Mitt and Ann Romney's unlikely use of their oldest son Tagg's unfinished basement in Belmont, Massachusetts, as their "primary residence," near the family home they had recently sold. This was done ostensibly so they could vote in Massachusetts in 2010 for Scott Brown, now Senator Brown, filling Ted Kennedy's empty seat, and for other Republican candidates.

The senior Romneys currently own two homes---in La Jolla, California and on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. A foremost New Hampshire newspaper is said to have described Mitt as an "unscrupulous opportunist" in connection with the apparent flimflam, a far cry from his squeaky clean image of the past.

It happened back in 2009. . .

I heard a funny thing today---
Mitt and Ann are going to stay
In the basement of their son,
Where the washing up is done.

Likely they're not paying rent;
Better they should pitch a tent
Outside on the family's lawn,
Making sure to rise by dawn,

Lest some nosy neighbors think
Romney's fortune's on the blink;
Then perhaps the two could stay
In the house during the day;

Mitt could tend to his affairs
And his presidential run
From a little room upstairs.

Elizabeth Gerteiny
Author of The President of War
www.bushandcompany.org

[brayhaven]

09:52 AM on 06/17/2011

Lots of people claim florida residency, because they have a campsite down here, where we don't have (state) income tax. The man isn't running for gov of MA, he's running for Pres of the US... And would do a far better job than the current "holder" of that office..

[ammy]

03:42 PM on 06/15/2011

Did you write about Rahm Emanuel?

[Muleheaded Mississippi]

01:15 PM on 06/15/2011

We've got the same thing happening down here in Mississippi. Bill Luckett is running for governor but has been voting and claiming residency in Tennessee from the mid 1990s until 2008. The trouble is that you have to live in Mississippi for 5 years before you can run for governor.

In Mississippi you pay personal income taxes. In Tennessee you pay no personal income taxes. I wonder why Bill Luckett chose to claim TN residency instead of Mississippi?

Learn more here: http://muleheadedms.blogspot.com/2011/06/bill-luckett-mississippis-mitt-romney.html

[bronceye]

10:06 AM on 06/14/2011

Begs the jon macane question-"How many homes have you, mittens?"

[tcnsrq]

09:04 AM on 06/14/2011

sweet irony if the Republicans elected a pro gay Healthcare reform advocate that loves the southern california surfer boy lifestyle....it's Arnold born in the USA

[TomDegan]

06:52 AM on 06/14/2011

I'll be honest with you: Of any potential GOP candidate to seek the Oval Office this year, Mitt is the first one since Gerald Ford whom I can honestly say that I won't lose a lot of sleep over if he is elected - certainly not as much as I lost during the years 2001-2009 when Dastardly Dubya and Sickie Dick were destroying this beautiful country. Although I could never bring myself to vote for him, Romney is really much more moderate than anything the Republicans have vomited out onto the national political stage in a generation or more. The only reason he looks so extreme these days is simply because the only way to win the nomination of that disgusting party, a candidate needs to say and do a lot of really stupid things. Fear not. I have been Mitt watching for a number of years now. He is not quite the dunce he would appear to be.

Mitt Romney's "moderateness" is perceived by the Republican base as left wing extremism. Add this to the fact that he is a Mormon and you can come to no other conclusion than that he has four strikes against him. If the religious bigots who have hijacked "the party of Lincoln" end up giving him the nomination, it will only be out of sheer desperation; but I just can't see that happening. Casey Anthony will be named Mother of the Year before that ever happens.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan

[eulogy8894]

09:56 AM on 06/14/2011

" Romney is really much more moderate than anything the Republican s have vomited out onto the national political stage in a generation or more. The only reason he looks so extreme these days is simply because the only way to win the nomination of that disgusting party, a candidate needs to say and do a lot of really stupid things."

I agree. Rommey will have to campaign from the right, but if he wins he will govern from the center, exactly as his homie Scott Brown has done.
As a secular progressive, I'm bracing myself to hear some distressing things come from Mitts mouth, but at the same time I'll remind myself the dude has to play to his audience. And that means we can expect to hear a lot of dumbed-down, uber patriot, redneck crap.

[Jim Pasterczyk]

06:10 AM on 06/14/2011

Face it, GOP politicians don't just prefer corporations, they are corporations for purposes of voting; they have more than one state of residence for purposes of convenience.

[morris111]

04:33 AM on 06/14/2011

Is ACORN backing Romney now??

[1differentdrummer]

06:34 AM on 06/14/2011

Try to keep up.

[92102]

04:31 AM on 06/14/2011

This would be a great Wayne's World story from Romney's basement pad.

[JOHN SERINO]

03:43 AM on 06/14/2011

This why people in other countries laugh at us,we act like alley cats.

[92102]

04:27 AM on 06/14/2011

Why are you insulting cats?

[Just-the-facts]

03:27 AM on 06/14/2011

Romney: Following a GOP tradition of voter fraud.

[brayhaven]

09:48 AM on 06/17/2011

"Obama accused of war crimes"...

[Dier me]

01:33 AM on 06/14/2011

At one point in time, Romney owned 2 homes worth more than $1 million each and 2 homes worth more than $10 million each. Does anyone know if Tagg is single? :)-

[lippp]

08:26 AM on 06/14/2011

With a name like Tagg, could be. Was he named after Romney's favorite game? Wonder if his middle name is Along.

[brayhaven]

09:49 AM on 06/17/2011

Is your last name "Service" :o)

[imusintheevening]

01:18 AM on 06/14/2011

Did Romney pay any MA taxes in 2010?

[1differentdrummer]

06:37 AM on 06/14/2011

Did he show the economic benefit of living in his son's basement on his federal income tax, or does he have to?

[Jeanette DeBella Bogue]

08:49 AM on 06/14/2011

Better yet, how much rent did he pay his son?