Sunday, October 27, 2013

Former Mayor Drew Campaign Manager & Rep. Geoff Luxenburg Accused of Voter Harassment, Not News to Middletown!

Rep. Geoff Luxenburg (D), former Mayor Dan Drew campaign manager
 being accused of voter intimidation & "combativiness" towards the Registrar of voters   in Manchester as well as elderly voters.
Chicago-style politics in CT - not news to Middletown where Rep. Geoff Luxenberg was Mayor Drew's campaign manager in 2011 and faced similar allegations.

The Manchester Registrar office has filed a complaint with the SEEC - State Elections Enforcement Committee alleging that Luxenburg harassed the Registrar of Voters in Manchester. The complaint alleges Luxenburg was "combative and negative" among it's  laundry list of accusations.

It is alleged that Mr. Luxenburg harassed two Registrars AND elderly voters. One registrar claims to have gotten a complaint the Luxenburg went to an sick and elderly womans house 3x to get her to vote via absentee.The bed-ridden citizen then made a complaint to the Registrar about Luxenburgs behavior asking the Registrar to ask Luxenburg to leave her alone.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-manchester-lux-complaint-1025-20131024,0,2099254.story

If proven true, voter intimidation/fraud, (which harassment of a registrar or voter falls under),  is a felony that can carry a 5 year prison term.

 Last local election cycle, Wesleyan College Democrat chairs & Democratic Town Committee members Gabriela De Golia and Ben Florsheim (Florsheim shoe company heir) filed accusations with the SEEC falsely accusing the Republican Registrar of Middletown and GOP candidates of voter intimidation as an attempt to smear the campaign. The SEEC dismissed all accusations as false. The judge actually ruled all three accused were promoting voting. Neither the DTC or Florsheim have issued apologies for their false accusations that carried felony penalties.

Flash back to Middletown 2011 & Office of the Registrar of Voters: 
Is this Luxenburgs first instance of election intimidation and alleged bad behavior?

In an article last year posted by the Middletown Eye written by Sterphen DeVoto (now a candidate on P&Z running with the Democratic slate), Devoto writes about alleged interrogations & harassing behavior towards the Town Clerk and Registrars of Voters by Luxenburg. Devoto writes:

"According to Tommasi, the Drew campaign then further escalated the interrogations and challenges. Most of this came from Geoff Luxenberg, the recently elected State Representative from Manchester, employed as Drew’s campaign manager. Luxenberg communicated with Tommasi in a series of emailed questions (see links below). Tommasi said that the questions made her very uncomfortable because they seemed to challenge her impartiality, “They raked me over the coals.” In one exchange, Luxenberg seemed to question why Democratic Town Committee endorsed candidates on the primary ballot could not serve as election workers."

Tommasi volunteered to meet face to face with Luxenberg, to resolve any issues and to avoid the possible misinterpretations that written emails can engender. She said the Drew campaign “refused to meet face to face”, apparently preferring the written record that emails would create."


The original article by Devoto can be read here in its entirety:

Democratic Registrar Of Voters Objects To Drew Campaign Actions


Subsequently, after defending her impartiality, Democratic Registrar Anne Tomassi was fired by the Democratic Town Commitee as Democratic Registrar and kicked her off their town commitee. The Republicans then appointed Tommassi as the GOP deputy registrar.

Then Town Clerk Sandra Russo-Driska ( since retired & now a Republican Common Council candidate) defended the actions of the Registrars, and wrote a public letter rebuking the behavior of the Drew 2011 Campaign and its treatment of the Registrar's in Middletown.

CT Dems seem to be adopting Chicago methods of intimidation on local level - is this the next generation of CT Dem leadership?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/hc-manchester-lux-complaint-1025-20131024,0,2908801.story

14 comments:

  1. The complaint is that he yelled at the registrars because THEY were making it harder for the elderly citizens to vote, not that he "intimidated" the elderly citizens, as a quick google search and basic reading comprehension will show. That's not to say his tactics are defensible, but saying HE was intimidating VOTERS? I wish I could say that was an outrageous misstatement of the facts, but of course it is completely par for the course for this blog. You're making things up again, Molly!

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  2. He is a clone of Dan Drew. They have the same hair and evil eyes.. Perhaps, Obama is indeed cloning people.

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  3. Dear ANON 1124:

    Did you write to the Courant to state your issue? I bet you didn't.. Their story was very similar to this one.. Please, stop wasting time on the message board with your politics!

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  4. Quick response time, MI. Are you frantically rereading that Courant article right now trying to parse all the big words? Here is the lede paragraph from the article you're referring to: "The voter registrars in Norwich have filed a complaint with the state Elections Enforcement Commission charging that state Rep. Geoff Luxenberg, D-Manchester, tried to intimidate them." THEM. Meaning THE REGISTRARS, not voters.

    Again, this is not a defense of yelling at the registrars, but the charge is completely different from "Voter Harassment" which is what you allege in your headline and post. That is not "very similar." It is completely different. If you can't understand what that distinction means, well, no one would be surprised actually.

    You are correct, however, that I am wasting my time since this comment is certain to be all Greek to you and accomplish nothing more than cause you to dig your heels in further. Whatever. Have fun getting your ass kicked next Tuesday.

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  5. The Courant's story is in no way similar to the Insider's post. The Insider has the story completely wrong. Luxenberg was never accused of combativeness toward elderly voters. He was accused of being rude to the Registrar of Voters. If that is the same thing to you then you have the same comprehension problem the Insider has.

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  6. Hello:

    What the heck is going on with these crazed anon posts? Why are they backing Geoff to the max without any evidence? I know Geoff and I saw him in action during the 1st Drew run for Mayor and let me tell you it wasn't nice downstairs in Registrarland. That being said, being direct and rude is NOT a crime and it should not be viewed as such.

    On the other hand Democrats have had their thumbs in every pie for years and years, especially the Common Council and Board of Education. During that time they have a left a liter of political bodies in their wake including Debrah Klecksowski, Elizabeth Brobrick, Maria Zimmitti, Dan Filer and Christine Bourne Once a member doesn't agree they are out on the street and banished for life. The Republicans are starting to do the same with the banishment of Pessina and Joey B., but that situation seems more complicated than just no agreeing with the group. They kept David Bauer on for christ-sake and everyday knows that Giuliano and Bauer can't stand each other.

    The ANON reader assumes that Republicans run the site: I think the site is very similar to the Middletown Eye where there are numerous writers from different backgrounds and parties etc, but very few people know the entire story. Perhaps the site began in 2011 when 3 ME writers felt that some members of the ME were getting big heads and going against them mission statement of ME. Just a thought or two!

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  7. Anyone with an iota of rationality and common sense will question what the hell a sitting state representative is doing running a campaign management company--let alone engaging in intimidation and pressure tactics of Registrars of voters and homebound seniors (for heaven's sweet sake). Please read my take on Norwich Alderwoman and Democratic mayoral candidate Deb Hinchey's marriage to Norwich's "good old boys" and the slime that this Luxenbourg character seems to be smearing wherever he rears his head: http://www.zoomvillage.com/newsStory.cfm/19453/Hinchey-for-Mayor-Campaign-Moscow-on-the-Thames

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Dear Anonymous commenters:

    Luxenburg is accused of harassing the two Registrars AND elderly voters.

    http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-manchester-lux-complaint-1025-20131024,0,2099254.story


    If you have an issue call the Courant and everyother news outlet in the state who is stating this.

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  10. Geoff Luxenburg shouldn't treating anyone in a unprofessional manner. He represents the good people Manchester and is acting like this.

    Shame on you Mr. Luxenburg.

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  11. ENOUGH with the Phil and Joe! Joe was a follower, but he is a grown man and should have acted like it. Phil was sexist towards the women of the council, didn't share information, didn't caucus and vote to raise taxes AND voted against a Republican budget that would have flatlined taxes. A political party doesn't have to take everyone - it is not "no child left behind! Phil was not up to par and did not get enough votes to get on the ticket again plain and simple. He was warned to get it together for 2 YEARS and didn't get a clue! CLUELESSNESS is not a good quality. They offered to let him run on the BOE or Treasurer but he refused to be a team player. What if you are a mediocre councilman you deserve your parties nomination? Hell no! If Phil is so great why didn't the almighty democrats pick him up???

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  12. ROBERT you are a horrible writer and are making things up!

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  13. Luxenburg is deeply entrenched in Dem politics at local and state level - higher political ambitions - not with his temperament.

    SEEC should keep an open file on this one...
    http://www.journalinquirer.com/page_one/political-boundaries/article_fcf389a8-3da6-11e3-bcea-001a4bcf887a.html

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  14. Wait wait wait! You all told me that Devoto was a limosine liberel who palled around with that Maseli guy and with the bad blues group, and that he had sold his sole to devil to be friends with Drew. But now you say that his writing on the 2011 affiar involving Luxemberg and Drew and the registars is important to read?

    Its all so confuseing.

    ReplyDelete

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