UPDATE III: I’ve never in my life seen someone as desperate, as Price Jett Jr. is, at getting elected to office. ANY office as a member of ANY party by ANY means necessary. From RK:
It has gone unreported that Price Jett, Jr. attended the Stafford Democratic Committee meeting in May seeking the Democratic nomination for Board of Supervisors that was given to a good Democrat, and winner, Harry E. Crisp II.
When Mr. Jett didn’t get the nomination, he was offered help in getting his name on the ballot for School Board from George Washington District. At the time, Bruce Gubser, Robert Belman’s hand-picked successor to Ed Sullivan, was the only qualified name on the ballot. Mr. Jett declined the offer.
Since we know that he’s being bankrolled to the tune of five-figures by his current masters, we can surmise that the offer tendered him in May simply didn’t have the right “Price” attached.
There are also rumors, unconfirmed, that Mr. Jett also sought the Republicans’ nomination for Supervisor that was given to Tom Coen.
Can you say “political opportunist”?
UPDATE II: Word is, the Free-Lance Star is being bombarded with Republicans phone calls and emails citing irregularities during the voting process. Hopefully, while they’re at it, they can tell someone that Ed Sullivan is not the School Board Chairman, like Jeff Branscome wrote in his article.
Check out this comment from Marc, who was present at one of the polling places on election day:
How about pressing charges again Paul Milde and Price Jett Jr. for their antics at the Chatham precinct. They both, although Milde was persistently worse, were walking voters to the front door of the precinct. They were warned numerous times, by precinct workers, that they had to stay back a certain number of feet. They were warned so many times, I don’t even remember. It got so bad that a worker from inside the polls came out and said that voters were complaining that Milde and Jett Jr. were walking them to the door and harassing them. At some point a poll worker came outside and put tape on the ground to emphasize were the boundaries were. Since Mayausky was at the Chatham precinct, maybe he can testify how the GOP violated the law with their antics outside the polling precinct!
UPDATE: From the Free-Lance Star:
Price Jett Jr. filed a lawsuit Monday in Stafford Circuit Court alleging that a count of all paper ballots may push him ahead of winner Patricia Mancini by at least three votes.
The suit claims some votes weren’t counted because people didn’t fill in a box indicating they were writing in Jett’s name.
……
The suit says Stafford Commissioner of Revenue Scott Mayausky, a Republican, was an observer at one of three precincts and is willing to testify about the voting issues.
An off-duty King George County deputy, who Jett says was not in uniform, also is ready to testify.
Several days after House Speaker Bill Howell and Stafford Commisioner of the Revenue Scott Mayausky (pictured) were practically beating down the door to the Clerk’s office (the sheriff was nearly called to the scene, not that it would have mattered since the deputies are all hard-core Republicans) trying to overturn Patricia Mancini’s election to the Stafford Co. School Board, they’ve gone to plan B and will now sue for a recount. Republican Price Jett Jr. ran a valiant write-in campaign against Mancini, who was endorsed by the Stafford Education Association, but ultimately came up just short as Patricia recieved 51% of the vote. The vote has been certified and School Board Member-elect Mancini is scheduled to be sworn in on Dec. 12.
This desperate move by Jett (and pretty much the entire Stafford Co. GOP) is being done, not in the name of democracy, but to prevent a moderate school board from being sworn in next month, in place of the usual extreme right-wing board the local wingnuts crave. The pending legal challenge, if the Jett “campaign” chooses to go through with it, would likely be paid for by Boss Howell & co., who never met a wealthy lobbyist they didn’t like. Making the whole thing even more absurd is the fact that finding more votes for Price Jett in a recount is nearly impossible. The write-in votes have to be filled in perfectly legible, with no spelling errors. The write-in candidates recieved 49% of the vote against Mancini, and that total can only go down. But then again, Jett, Mayausky, and rest of the Howell political machine are used to getting their way, and losing graciously is not a trait that Stafford Republicans have in spades.
When Bob Woodson became the first ever African-American to win election the the Stafford BOS, and in the process gave control to the Democrats by defeating Chairman Jack Cavalier, Bob extended his hand in friendship to Jack at the first Board meeting following the election. Cavalier took one look at Supervisor-elect Woodson’s hand, and kept on walking. Now I know that Jack Cavalier used to be a Democratic-leaning Independent, but that was before the Republicans gave him the Vice-Chairmanship years ago in exchange for control of the BOS.
Filed under: Local Politics
Thanks Chris for getting this story out. Jeff Branscome will have one in Thursday’s FLS and if it’s propaganda I will be in his face. In the meantime, we are waiting to get a copy of the suit tomorrow.
At last Monday’s School Board meeting, all the members, even Ed Sullivan who campaigned for Price Jett and made robo-calls on his behalf, congratulated the winners including Patricia. All the members, that is, save one.
Patricia’s presence on the board will steer it back towards educating Stafford’s children as it’s primary function, instead of being a political football and a vehicle for ambitious GOP machine hacks.
“The write-in votes have to be filled in perfectly legible, with no spelling errors. ”
Are you sure about this, Chris? I had thought that the criterion was that the write-in name was recognizable as a particular person. In this case, where there was a campaign for the write-in candidate, it would be fairly straightforward to separate the votes for Jett/Jet/Get/etc from the others.
We had a short discussion about this issue a couple of years ago in a training session for election officers, but my memory is admittedly fuzzy and the law may have changed since then.
Who will pay the legal fees of the lawsuit? The Stafford taxpayers? This highlights how partisan Robert Belman is and is the reason why he should not be on our School Board.
Jim, if you were in Stafford or read the FL-S you saw many ads, brochures and mailings for Price Jett Jr. where he exhaustively showed how to properly cast a vote for him. Technically, the oval needed to be darkened and the name “Price Jett Jr.” needed to be written on the line next to it.
I know that many votes that did not meet this criteria were, in fact, counted for Mr. Jett, based on the principle of “identifying voter intent”. The fact is Mr. Mayausky and Mr. Jett were informed by the Election Board that counting EVERY absentee ballot for Mr. Jett would still not give him the victory. In the event, unlikely as it may seem, that a recount is ordered Mr. Jett will lose votes, somewhere between 50 and 100 because more stringent requirements will be demanded. In short, even if they get what they are asking for, they will not win.
Patty, yes the Stafford taxpayers will pick up the tab for this foray. I spoke with one of the Supervisors today and he was decidedly unhappy about the prospect and added expense. For a county that continually cuts the budget of its schools, it’s a curious use of resources.
This from the party that made much of “Sore Loserman” in 2000…ironic.
FYI- I work with many of the deputies at the Stafford courthouse and I would’t lump them all in with the Republicans. My experience with the Stafford deputies has been that they are very pleasant, helpful and fair.
This lawsuit, however, just proves how partisan our school board has become. Robert Belman, the School Board Chair, is definitely more than disappointed about Jett’s loss because now he won’t rule the roost anymore. Mancini is moderate and will put the children before politics. In the recent past, Robert Belman has worked with the Republican members of the Board of Supervisors to actually cut needed funding to our schools. Stafford County schools have felt the impact with over-crowded classes due to lack of funds to hire new teachers and increased fees paid by students and their families.
How about pressing charges again Paul Milde and Price Jett Jr. for their antics at the Chatham precinct. They both, although Milde was persistently worse, were walking voters to the front door of the precinct. They were warned numerous times, by precinct workers, that they had to stay back a certain number of feet. They were warned so many times, I don’t even remember. It got so bad that a worker from inside the polls came out and said that voters were complaining that Milde and Jett Jr. were walking them to the door and harassing them. At some point a poll worker came outside and put tape on the ground to emphasize were the boundaries were. Since Mayausky was at the Chatham precinct, maybe he can testify how the GOP violated the law with their antics outside the polling precinct!
Was Scott Mayausky, the Commissioner of Revenue, on County time when he was observing the electoral board canvass on behalf of the GOP? i.e. were the citizens of Stafford paying Mayausky to observe for the GOP or did he take vacation time to do this? Mayausky should be asked this under oath. I think he may have an ethical problem.
I remember him doing the same thing for the Webb-Allen canvass . Is this what the County pays him to do? No- it’s just very convenient that he can take the time from his real job to do this.
Mayausky needs to be questioned under oath about Milde’s and Jett’s actions at the precinct as well as what he was doing at the canvass when he should have been doing his job as Commissioner of Revenue. I’m glad that Marc was there to witness the outrageous behavior.
It surely would be nice to have pictures of the sitting Supervisor violating the election laws of his own county/state _after_ having been admonished by the election officials. Not that it doesn’t come naturally to him. Nice, too, to have IDs for the complaining voters.
Maybe the best we can do is to find a way to get the officials to testify under oath whether and how often they had to intervene, how, and against whom.
Better to have pressed charges at the time, while everyone was still on site. We may no longer have cause for action, but sworn testimony that mildew violated election law while an elected official just _might_ help whomever runs against the POS next cycle.
[...] law firm Troutman Sanders has been brought in by the local Howell political machine in the Mancini/Jett recount lawsuit. This is the same firm that represented now Attorney Gen. Bob McDonnell (R) in his recount with [...]
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