Wait: Rangel Margin Drops To 1,000 Votes; Confusion Over Count...

[paulitician]

Is anyone surprised by this?


Rangel results still unsettled

It’s been a day and a half since the New York polls closed and there’s still some confusion over the exact outcome of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s Democratic primary.

The Associated Press results came to a standstill early Wednesday morning with 84 percent of the 13th District’s 506 precincts reporting and Rangel owning a 45.2 percent to 39.8 percent advantage over state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, the second-place finisher.

By late afternoon Wednesday, though, the results had narrowed considerably: With 94 percent of precincts in, Rangel’s lead was down to 44 percent to 41 percent, with 1,032 votes separating the candidates according to the AP.

Espaillat’s campaign issued a cautiously worded statement suggesting maybe the race wasn’t as settled as everyone thought. Rangel’s camp issued its own statement expressing confidence that “at the conclusion of this process we will be victorious.”

It’s notable that the strange lack of clarity surrounding the results hasn’t yet sparked public recriminations or even led to any candidates to question the outcome. That suggests there’s less here than meets the eye.

Still, it doesn’t reflect well on the Board of Elections when there’s this much confusion this long after the polls closed.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/charlie-mahtesian/2012/06/rangel-results-still-unsettled-127509.html
http://www.drudgereport.com/

 

[The Infidel]

What I want to know is how Rangel can claim victory so early and Espaillat concedes so early...

 

[waltky]

Tax cheat Charlie Rangel: 'Pay your fair share!'...

Rangel umbrage at Cantor: Higher taxes are 'paying your fair share!'
September 20, 2012 | New York Rep. Charles Rangel, censured by the House for ethics violations over squirrely financial dealings like failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and failing to pay income taxes, today called President Obama's goal of killing some Bush tax cuts "paying your fair share!"

The 82-year-old's umbrage came in a tweet while he was in the Cannon Rotunda interview area. According to a picture he also tweeted, he was near House Majority Leader Eric Cantor who was in a discussion over the Bush tax cuts. "My ears perking up to hear RepCantor saying taxes will go up under Pres Obama. It's called 'paying your fair share!'" Rangel tweeted just after noon. His picture shows Rangel waiting to be interviewed with Cantor off to the right, TV light shining off his face as he is being interviewed.

It's the second time this week Rangel has ranted on proper ethics and tax paying. Earlier this week he rapped Mitt Romney for accurately saying that some 47 percent of Americans don't pay taxes. Rangel said in a statement that was just federal taxes, and that the 47 percent actually do pay some taxes, presumably local taxes.

When the tweet made its way around Capitol Hill today, many Rangel critics choked, mocking his long list of ethical challenges. His reputation and career were damaged when he was charged with ethical violations, forced to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and eventually censured.

Source

See also:

Rep. Maxine Waters cleared on ethics charges
21 Sept.`12: Conflict-of-interest case involved work on behalf of minority-owned banks

The House Ethics committee has cleared Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, of any wrongdoing in a 3-year-old, conflict-of-interest case involving her work on behalf of minority-owned banks during the height of the economic crisis even though her husband had a financial stake in one of them. The finding exonerates Mrs. Waters, but the ethics panel is still weighing disciplinary action against her grandson, Mikael Moore, who serves as her chief of staff. The case has lingered for years after allegations of prosecutorial misconduct within the Ethics Committee surfaced and delayed an initial public trial scheduled for the fall of 2010. The panel last year took the unusual step of hiring an outside counsel to review the allegations that the panel had mishandled the case against Mrs. Waters and then weigh the evidence against her and Mr. Moore.

The stakes were incredibly high for Mrs. Waters, who will be the highest-ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee next year after Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts retires. If the committee had found her guilty of any ethics violations, that could have jeopardized her ranking member status. During a rare public hearing Friday, members of the committee said they agreed with the findings of an outside counsel hired to examine the case against her as well as the troubling context of the committee’s handling of the investigation. The attorney, Bill Martin, found that Mrs. Waters thought she was initially acting on behalf of all minority-owned banks, not just on behalf of OneUnited Bank of Boston, in which her husband held stock and previously had served on the board of directors. “We are prepared to accept that finding after this public hearing,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the acting chairman of the Ethics Committee, said Friday.

When Mrs. Waters discovered OneUnited’s prominent role in requesting bailout assistance from the Treasury Department, she informed Mr. Frank, who was serving as chairman of the Financial Services Committee at the time, and handed the issue off to him, Mr. Martin found. In the fall of 2010, public trial scheduled for Mrs. Waters was abruptly cancelled after the staff director of the Ethics Committee announced the discovery of new evidence in the case. That staff director ultimately resigned, but not before placing two staff attorneys to the committee on administrative leave amid allegations that they leaked information about the probe to Republican members of the committee.

On advice of Mr. Martin, all members of the committee dealing with the case recused themselves and House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, appointed a new panel in 2011 to evaluate evidence in the case and Mr. Martin’s findings. Although Mr. Martin found some merit to Mrs. Waters‘ complaints, he ultimately determined that the leaks did not violate her due process rights or bias the case against her because the Ethics Committee did not operate under the same rules as a court of law.

Read more: Calif. Rep. Waters cleared on ethics charges - Washington Times Calif. Rep. Waters cleared on ethics charges - Washington Times