Tammany Hall gets franchised — is Charlie Powell the East St. Louis Boss Tweed?
Tammany Hall was a formidable force in New York City politics for over a century, from Andrew Jackson’s election in 1828, through and beyond the election of Fiorello LaGuardia in 1933, after Mayor Jimmy Walker’s resignation in disgrace. Tammany provided services, and expected oh so little in repayment:
Today, Charlie Powell appears to be the Boss Tweed of East St. Louis, and makes Jimmy Walker look the very model of probity and discretion. From the Belleville News-Democrat, via Gateway Pundit:
“I don’t have any concerns about voter fraud in East St. Louis,” said Charlie Powell, East St. Louis Democratic Committee chairman and 9th precinct committeeman. “The Republicans are raising all this fuss to stymie the black voter in the black communities.” One of the suspicious cases Topinka highlighted centered on Powell’s own home. “If I didn’t think this was important, I wouldn’t be here,” Topinka said. Here are some of the findings:
• A total of 30 registered voters, most with different last names, are purported to live at 1232 Cleveland Ave. in East St. Louis. The address is registered to Oliver Hamilton, a Democrat and 20th precinct committeeman. Eleven of the voters requested absentee ballots for the election Tuesday. Hamilton couldn’t be reached for comment.
• Of the 44 Democratic precinct committeemen in East St. Louis, 22 have at least three registered voters with different last names purporting to live at the committeemen’s homes. Seven of those committeemen have five or more.
• One woman listed the Casino Queen, 200 S. Front St., as her home address. The same woman requested her absentee ballot be sent to a St. Louis address.
• At least 678 voters are registered for both East St. Louis and St. Clair County.
• At Powell’s home, 1714 Bond Ave., 17 voters are registered. Of those, 14 cast ballots in the March primary election.
Here’s some further insight into Powell from columnist James Ingram in the St. Louis American:
What would you call someone who gave up the stability of a $55,000-per-year state position for the lunacy and unpredictability of interim city manager for the city of East St. Louis? The word “insane” does comes to mind, particularly when the individual has a wife and two children and could, potentially, be only one vote away from the unemployment line if he fails to do the bidding of the ESL City Council majority leader, Charlie “The Godfather of Poli-tricks” Powell and his cronies. One can reason that the $81,543 base salary and $800 per-month expense allowance makes this a worthy gamble. But this isn’t a craps game at the Casino Queen, folks. It’s ESL politics, where city managers leave office in disgrace or fall to their death from bridges under mysterious circumstances.
Lest you think this space is overstating the corruption in ESL, the police chief and the Director of Regulatory Affairs of East St. Louis were indicted on federal charges in the last week. One of the charges involved a murder conspiracy.
Two things are both shameful and unsurprising in the saga of America’s new Tammany Halls in East St. Louis and other cities with the scent of voter fraud. The first is that Democrats are already playing the race card, as this amusing entry from Gateway Pundit shows; why now, the Dems ask — must be racism! Second, and intimately related to the first, the Old Media have shown no interest in the fascinating tale of the franchising of Tammany Hall. You’d think that a story of political power, stolen elections, voter fraud, money, greed, corruption, and probably some naughty bits, would be of enormous interest to the Old Media. But that would be the wrong kind of diversity to them.