Seems like whether it's on the streets collecting petitions, or all the way up to the White House, the Republican Party is full of nothing but crooks, crack-heads and ho's. This is how young Karl Rove got his start too.
"Half the (petitioners) are crack- or meth-heads. It's to get cash for their next fix," said Lynn Litheredge, a petition and voter registration circulator from Las Vegas who has worked on and off in Orange County for two years.
In a world where new Republican registrations pay up to $8 apiece and each name on a petition brings at least $1, signature gatherers have grown creative in chasing down the ka-ching. The industry is especially hot in California, where petition drives tripled in recent years in an effort to take democracy to the streets.
For instance, California petition circulators and their bosses earned $980,000 for the 713,787 signatures gathered to put a child- molestation initiative on the November ballot.
Ricker said he counsels his gatherers not to lie or commit fraud, but he allows them to use their skills of salesmanship. He said there is nothing wrong with ardently asking voters to mark themselves as "Republican" so the gatherer can get a "bonus." It's up to voters to understand they are changing their political party.
"I'm an honest man, and I run an honest program," he said. "By the same token, it is my mission to maximize productivity. I can't help it if people are stupid."
In a world where new Republican registrations pay up to $8 apiece and each name on a petition brings at least $1, signature gatherers have grown creative in chasing down the ka-ching. The industry is especially hot in California, where petition drives tripled in recent years in an effort to take democracy to the streets.
For instance, California petition circulators and their bosses earned $980,000 for the 713,787 signatures gathered to put a child- molestation initiative on the November ballot.
Ricker said he counsels his gatherers not to lie or commit fraud, but he allows them to use their skills of salesmanship. He said there is nothing wrong with ardently asking voters to mark themselves as "Republican" so the gatherer can get a "bonus." It's up to voters to understand they are changing their political party.
Ricker said it's OK to hire ex-criminals to collect sensitive information, as long as they no longer break any laws.
"People pay their debt to society. (They) make mistakes, and they pay for their mistakes," he said. "I don't think I have any murderers in my crew."
Ricker's crew does include 23-year-old Jessica Sundell, a former methamphetamine addict and ex-prostitute who went by the street name "Cupcake."
Eight people registered by Sundell complained to local election officials or the Register, including Tamara Vravis, 37, of Anaheim. Vravis said she was switched from the Democratic Party to Republican without her consent.
Vravis learned from a reporter that she had also given her personal information to someone once saddled with a $50-a-day meth habit.
"I'm not happy right now," Vravis said. "I will never sign another petition."
"Maybe the work pool we had to pull from aren't the best people you want out there," said Randall, who fired two signature gatherers because they "weren't the quality of the people that I felt should be out there representing the Republican Party."
Randall's standards come despite his own past: He pleaded guilty in 2002 to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
As nomadic as petitioners may be, Paul Daniel Delaney isn't going anywhere.
He is in federal prison for his side job: transporting illegal immigrants across the border.
A regular in the Orange County petition scene, Delaney was caught in September 2005 trying to sneak a woman who was eight months pregnant into the United States from Tijuana. He had bolted her into a small compartment behind the seats of a 1985 Mazda RX-7 with no license plates.
The woman, who was discovered by the Border Patrol, said Delaney charged her $3,000 to smuggle her. He later pleaded guilty and is serving an 18-month sentence.
Before he was incarcerated, Delaney gathered registrations and sold them to the highest bidder, who in turn would sell them to the appropriate political party.
http://www.ocregister.com/...