Thursday, March 28, 2024

Special prosecutor to probe Rep. Taylor’s staff’s signature gathering for Shaun Brown

A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate possible violations of the state’s election laws, and forgery, involving the gathering of signatures for Shaun Brown’s independent bid for the 2nd Congressional District.

Commonwealth’s Attorney for Virginia Beach Colin D. Stolle filed the request for a special prosecutor, saying “this office is so situated with respect to potential witnesses in this matter as to render it improper for this office to make any potential charging decisions or to prosecute such potential charges.”

The signatures were gathered by staff associated with Rep. Scott Taylor, R-2nd, and his reelection campaign. The move is an old political tactic – an effort to split a candidate’s opponent’s votes.

A Circuit Court judge in Virginia Beach has appointed Donald R. Caldwell, commonwealth’s attorney for Roanoke, as special prosecutor.

“This matter is in the investigatory stage regarding potential violations of the Code of Virginia, including violations of election laws and forgery,” Stolle wrote in his petition.

Four people whose signatures apparently appeared in the petition to get Brown on November’s ballot, told WHRO-FM Monday they never signed such document.

Another woman says her dead husband’s name is on the petition.

Taylor is running against Democrat Elaine Luria. Brown was the district’s Democratic candidate in 2016.  The 2nd district  includes Accomack and Northampton counties, portions of York County, and the cities of Virginia Beach and Williamsburg and parts of the cities of Norfolk and Hampton.

Taylor’s office declined comment Tuesday.

“Democrats and Republicans agree that the integrity of our election process is paramount. VA-02 voters deserve to know if Congressman Taylor’s paid staff violated the law and if all candidates received the required number of signatures to make the ballot this November,” said Jake Rubenstein, Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman. “We look forward to seeing the results of Commonwealth’s Attorney Caldwell’s investigation into this matter.”

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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