Cliff Vanover slapped down by Board of Elections

Vanover, from the CCA website

After having his butt kicked in last November's Town Council election, Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) leader Cliff Vanover went for some pay-back against his political enemies.

He filed charges with the state Board of Elections alleging violations of state campaign finance law against the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC), the Republican Town Committee and against individual candidates, including Vanover's long-time nemesis Jim Mageau.

His charges against town Democrats have just been resoundingly dismissed by the Board of Elections (see letter from the BOE, below the fold). That must have been hard for Cliffy and his CCA cohorts to take because they, by contrast, were found in violation of campaign disclosure law by the BOE. Vanover filed his complaint on January 31st, a month after the BOE ruled for the CDTC in its complaint against CCA.

First, let's look at Cliffy's charges which were rejected by the BOE and then the CDTC charges against CCA and its slate of candidates - including Cliff - which were upheld.


Cliff charged the town Democrats with violating state law last fall when they campaigned on behalf of our two State Representatives (Donna Walsh and Larry Valencia), Henry Walsh for Town Moderator and Melina Lodge for Planning Commission - and then failed to tell those candidates the value of those efforts so they could include the amounts as "in-kind" contributions on their individual campaign finance reports.

Except Cliff was totally wrong. Right after the election, on November 11th, the CDTC notified the candidates that it had expended $236.76 each in in-kind effort and that this amount should be included in their campaign finance reports. A slam dunk response to a pretty Mickey Mouse complaint.

By contrast, the Charlestown Democrats reported to the Board of Elections that the CCA had failed to report the amount it spent on its Town Council and Planning Commission candidates in the final days of the election. Their last minute spending blitz - which included full-page newspaper ads, a multi-page color campaign mailer to registered voters and tons of other campaign schotzke - saved their Town Council ambitions, getting CCA leaders Tom Gentz and Dan Slattery the top vote totals, and effective control of the Town Council.

The spending blitz also allowed the CCA to gain total control of the Planning Commission - every full and alternate member has now been hand-picked by the CCA.

The CCA spent almost $6000 in the final days of the election - which is HUGE for a town like Charlestown, and many times more than what all the other candidates and party committees spent combined. But the CCA only report a fraction of that amount - just $1240 - in its final pre-campaign report.

Instead, through an elaborate donor dance, the CCA's expenditures were paid for by individual CCA leaders who were then reimbursed ON ELECTION NIGHT! Except Cliff - he was reimbursed by the CCA a little later. By using this manuever way, the CCA avoided reporting almost $4600 in last-minute spending until well after the elections.

The CCA leaders who took part in this shell game are:

1. Cliff Vanover, who covered and was reimbursed for $2407.90
2. Our Town Council President (and CCA Secretary) Tom Gentz who was in for $1017.68
3. Planning Commission member Kate Waterman who was in for $880
4. CCA's President and Treasurer Kallie and John Jurgens who fronted $244.48 in CCA expenses
5. And our Town Council Vice-President (and former CCA President) Dan Slattery who added $21.40

The Board of Elections ruled that these complicated maneuvers did violate state campaign finance disclosure law but noted that it did not find sufficient evidence to rule that the violations were intentional.

Personally, I believe the CCA decided to use its large treasury to buy the 2010 election, but didn't want the voters to know about it until it was all over. But that's me.

It's not, technically, against the law to buy an election, but it is illegal to try to cover it up. The next time the CCA gets on its high horse about transparency and clean government, remember how they pulled off their 2010 election coup.

[RESEARCH NOTE: Any person with access to a computer and the internet can easily find the public reports that document the details in this article. The Board of Elections maintains an excellent database that allows you to look at scanned copies of the actual reports. Every candidate, political action committee (e.g. the CCA) and town party committee (e.g. the CDTC) must file timely, detailed reports.]

Author: Will Collette