I don't have much sympathy for Secretary of State Charlie White's excuse for his voting-irregularity problem -- that his complicated personal life made him "practically homeless" for a year and thus confused about where he should vote. That's in the same league as "the dog ate my homework" and "I never would have misbehaved if I'd been sober," not something the state's chief election officer should be saying.
But he has a point about not being given immunity for whatever he says to the Indiana Recount Commission, which will conduct its hearing on White's fitness to stay in office before he faces trial on the criminal charges resulting from the same allegations. His attorney, James Bopp:
Bopp said the Democrats have pushed White into an “unconscionable dilemma” because he must now determine whether he can defend himself against their challenge without hurting his criminal case.
“They don't want him to testify because they know his testimony will be damaging to their case,” Bopp said. “
Comments
A lot of times, I think the civil case would end up getting stayed pending the outcome of the criminal case. The harm, whatever it is, has been caused and typically isn't getting worse by waiting around to take care of the civil trial. And, in a lot of cases, the civil plaintiffs are happy enough to let the State shoulder the burden of proving the wrongdoer's culpability.
But, here, because the whole issue in the civil case is whether White ought to be allowed to remain Secretary of State, allowing him to remain in office during the pendency of the criminal matter would essentially be to reward him for being indicted.
Incidentally, from the Twitter stream out of the hearing, it doesn't sound like White is doing himself a lot of favors with his testimony at the moment.
The bigger issue for the GOP is this: If White is removed from the SOS office- or more specifically, if it is ruled he was not a valid candidate- then the GOP did NOT have a SOS candidate. Therefore- the GOP will NOT have automatic ballot access- and every GOP candidate in the State will have to collect signatures to be on the ballot for the next 4 years.
I stand corrected! Today's JG points out that the GOP legislature, concerned about what could happen to White, passed a new law to grant them automatic ballot access regardless-http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110624/EDIT07/306249947/1021/EDIT