David Oh: Sore Loser or Shenanigan Detector?
Days after his loss to incumbent City Council at-large member Jack Kelly was certified by the city’s Board of Elections, candidate David Oh isn’t backing off his voter fraud allegations or his criticism of an absentee ballot process he considers flawed — and he says he’ll continue to gather evidence to expose the people he thinks are behind the “shenanigans.”
“I’m actually OK with the fact that I lost the election — that is Philly politics,” Oh tells the Daily Examiner. “When I entered into this election, I knew I wasn’t going to get the kind of support that I needed to win because of the shenanigans involved in it, and quite frankly, we counted on shenanigans going on.”
Oh wouldn’t divulge his list of shenanigans-ers, but says he is investigating individuals with major local political ties. He did say that he thinks that person who infiltrated the Delaware Valley Veterans Hospital to collect absentee ballot votes from residents (many of whom are devoid of their full faculties) was definitely working for somebody else. Oh claims that the alleged dastardly perpetrator is a person who “feels protected” and did it because they “felt like it would please somebody important.” (Perhaps it was one of the “Local 98 goons” referenced on the Next Mayor’s message board? Somebody call George Anastasia.)
Oh added that he feels confident that the next time he runs, it’ll be a completely different story that will (hopefully) result in victory. For now, he says he’ll play the waiting game to see if sufficient shenanigans evidence can be rooted out, and possibly take his case to federal court: “I cannot exit the election until we address this problem.”
However, Frank Keel, the spokesperson for Kelly’s camp, says insiders are becoming increasingly exhausted by Oh’s inquiries. “Whatever Mr. Oh does from this point forward doesn’t involve us,” Keel tells the Examiner. “What evidence has he presented at this point? It’s grown wearisome.”
Keel also suggest that the longer Oh continues to dig, the more he’s hindering his chances of running again, because he’s turning off his own party: “There’s a growing perception that David is off the reservation at this point.”
Oh asks D.A. to probe ballots from vets home [Inquirer]
PHOTO: Philly.com
November 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
To win the machine vote but to lose by asbentee ballots by less than 200 votes, its definitely worth looking into whether any “shenanigans” or tomfoolery occured.