Fayette Searchlight Calls For DA Bower's Immediate Recusal From VRC Referral
Posted: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 by Pezzonovante in
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Fayette Searchlight calls for the immediate, public, and swift recusal of Fayette County District Attorney Richard E. Bower from the Fayette County Voter Registration Commission (VRC) referral of September 10, 2018 due to conflicts of interest.
As recently as four weeks ago, Bower was a listed sponsor of "The Democratic Radio Hour" heard Fridays on WMBS 590AM radio at 3:15 p.m. and hosted by Fayette County Democrat Party Chairman George Rattay. The Committee to Re-Elect Tim Mahoney also sponsors (see bottom of Page 11) Rattay's program.
Mahoney as well as Fayette County Commissioner Vince Vicites have been guests on Rattay's program. Both Mahoney and Vicites and their political signs (as well as one of Bower's political signs) have featured prominently in the photographs of the Democrat booth at the Fayette County Fair where two, pre-printed inducement signs hung and listed prizes on offer to win for those who registered Democrat or changed party affiliation to Democrat. Many of these photographs were incorporated as exhibits in the state Republican Committee complaint.
Bower's campaign contribution to Mahoney in 2016, Bower's recent past sponsorship of "The Democratic Radio Hour"(which is also sponsored by Mahoney's campaign committee and hosted by Rattay), Bower's utter failure to conduct the mandatory investigation into the Fayette County Election Board's unanimous Third Referral of May 24, 2012 (allegations of election fraud against then-State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney), and Bower's permitting of the general statute of limitations on Mahoney's alleged perjuries to lapse on August 9, 2016 and August 22, 2016 respectively, all manifestly demonstrate Bower's conflicts of interest in the VRC referral within which Mahoney and Rattay have become central figures.
The citizens of Fayette County are owed an impartial,
unbiased investigation of the allegations of violations of the Voter Registration Act made by the state Republican Committee and forwarded yesterday by a unanimous 3-0 vote of the VRC to the district attorney's office. An unbiased investigation would be an impossibility with a conflicted district attorney leading the investigation. DA Bower's recusal from the Voter Registration Commission referral should have been immediate, public, and swift.
It was not.
In reiteration, in the interest of impartial justice, this space calls for the immediate, public, and swift recusal of Fayette County District Attorney Richard E. Bower from the Voter Registration Commission referral of September 10, 2018.