The fabrications of Jeff Frederick

John Reid
Published: August 14, 2008

I’m writing about Jeff Frederick’s reckless and irresponsible claim that voter registration fraud is occurring across the commonwealth. He said “there appears to be a coordinated and widespread effort in
Virginia to commit voter fraud” (Washington Post, July 29).

He took one incident of fraud in Hampton (perpetrated by three misguided young adults) and is trying to fabricate a state crisis meant to fool the voting public into thinking that the process is not secure.
When pressed for details, Frederick was unable to provide any. He even failed to mention that the nonprofit group doing the registration, itself made the report.

One would think that Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell would be all over the case, especially because the person promoting the case is Chairman of the state Republican Party (yes that’s Jeff
Frederick). But Republican McDonnell is NOT pursuing this because Frederick’s extreme allegations are not true.

Frederick and other extreme right-wing ideologues are attempting to distract the public from the problems that they have made no serious effort to solve, like finding funding for our transportation crisis.

Republicans are afraid. They know they’ve mishandled the reins of government: from the Bush White House to a Congress that they’ve controlled for years, to the Virginia House of Delegates where they
block good legislation and then blame Governor Kaine. They have failed and the public knows it.

Jeff Frederick fears the tidal wave of new voters coming in November and the changes it will bring to Virginia. Frederick and other extremists in the House of Delegates have consistently blocked the good
legislation that Governor Kaine repeatedly puts forward, even blocking the workable transportation solutions offered during the special session.

Jeff Frederick knows the shrinking Republican majority in the Virginia House of Delegates is closely tied to the fact that “we the people” are currently registering to vote so that many more voices will be
heard in November and in the years to come. Faced with the possibility that Virginians will for the first time in 44 years select a Democrat as president, Frederick is frantically tilting at windmills.

JOHN REID

Manassas