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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:
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
