Southpinellas: Straw poll has some in snit

ST. PETERSBURG - The rules of the Republican straw poll at Wednesday's CNN/YouTube debate were simple: Buy a ticket for $20 a pop and vote for your favorite candidate. The money would benefit local Republican parties.

Yet when hundreds of Ron Paul supporters arrived by trolley and shuttle, dominating the estimated 1,000 or so guests at the Vinoy Park fundraiser, the event quickly became a heated contest between Paul's people and Mitt Romney supporters.

Lined up at the voting machines, Paul supporters flaunted their single tickets and pledged to vote only once.

Meanwhile, some Romney supporters openly admitted to using rolls of tickets to vote multiple times. Romney won the poll with 893 votes, while Paul finished with 534. The rest of the candidates weren't even close; Giuliani came in third with 39.

It was all caught on tape, and the local Paul supporters rushed to share their complaints with the rest of the world.

By week's end, at least three videos hit YouTube, documenting Romney supporters - including prominent lawyer and lobbyist Fred Leonhardt - openly casting multiple votes.

In one video, a Clearwater woman and Paul supporter sat on a couch and accused Pinellas County GOP chairman and straw poll organizer Tony DiMatteo of threatening bodily harm if she didn't stop complaining.

"Tony's exact words on the phone to me was, 'If you make a big deal out of this, you will get hurt,'" Sofie Lefebvre said in the video. "And I was shocked. At that point, I realized that there was a lot more corruption going on than we even realized before."

Absurd, DiMatteo said. "You should tell your editor to get a voice analysis done on that video to detect her lying," he told a reporter.

"It was clear on the advertisements for the event that these votes were for sale. It was nothing more than a fundraising gimmick, and for whatever reason, the Mitt Romney people really wanted to win it and the Ron Paul (people) really wanted to win it."

Lefebvre could not be reached for comment, but her story about faulty voting machines and corrupt practices - as well as DiMatteo's alleged threats - drew more than 11,700 views and 280 comments on YouTube by Sunday, one day after it hit the popular video-sharing Web site. Most of those who responded to the video appeared outraged by what they perceived as a political scandal.

DiMatteo dismissed the incident, calling it a non-issue that he refused to discuss any further.

"I've read some of those comments," he said. "These are a bunch of people that need to get lives and don't understand what really happened here."

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Comments on this article

by Matthew	01/15/08 03:44 PM
It is interesting that those text message polls that Ron Paul wins do not allow more than 1 message.

by Tom	12/05/07 08:39 PM
The outrage expressed by some of the Ron Paul supporters is quite telling. These people have been discusted with the political process for many years and now that they have a first hand knowledge of exactly how corrupt "the machine" they are shocked

by Kendrick	12/04/07 05:01 PM
Well, let this be a lession to us all. I will never donate directly to the Republican party again. This type of politics has no place in Florida or anyplace in the USA. A poll is 1 vote per eligable voter. Period. The Rep.chairman should be fired.

by LG	12/04/07 03:43 PM
I was there. ALL Ron Paul supporters were from Florida. So straw polls are just as unscientifics as national polls done by regular phones. So why several media pundits use them to promote their own agendas?

by riviera	12/04/07 03:22 PM
Can we put all the "Nobody cares", "Nothing we can do about it" and "That's how we do polictics" people all in a higher special tax bracket so they can pay for their illegal wars?

by MilVet	12/04/07 01:37 PM
We're well aware that current Anti-American domestic destruction elements don't care about "unimportant" actions such as bodily threats. They're too busy frothing at the mouth in eager anticipation of their cut of the spoils in a new world order.

by LOL!	12/04/07 07:36 AM
FUNDRAISER. RonPaulBots sure love to whine and use dishonest tactics to try to created outrage by misrepresenting an obvious fundraiser as some kind of legitimate poll. Just like those text message "polls" after debates Ron Paul seems to "win"-LOL!

by Jocephus	12/04/07 02:51 AM
I don't know why they bothered. Ron Paul has no chance of getting the Republican nomination. He's a nutcase, and most voters know it. The zealotry of his supporters won't change that.

by JP	12/04/07 01:26 AM
Ymm, speak for yourself Barbara. If you are ok with the corrupt voting process, umm, what am I looking for here... not more power to you.. not have at it...maybe move to a country that doesn't pride itself on it's democratic process?

by sally	12/03/07 09:23 PM
My husband just submitted an anti-Dr Ron comment and I wanted to rebut. I will not vote for Mitt because he obviously wants to buy votes and my vote is not for sale, Mister!

by tom	12/03/07 08:49 PM
How about you and I, Tony? Will we get hurt?

by DeepToad	12/03/07 08:30 PM
Barbara, Nobody cares? Are you suggesting that bad behavior in politics/government is a-okay with you? Uh... people DO care. This is not the kind of slight-of-hand our founders would be impressed with. So... smarten up.

by Cindy	12/03/07 02:57 PM
The trolleys were not used to bus Paul supporters in from out of state. They were arranged to take Ron Paul supporters between the Vinoy Park Straw Poll, the Pioneer Park Unity Rally/ Straw Poll, and the Palladium Theater, for a Paul debate ralley.

by John	12/03/07 01:50 PM
I wonder if DiMatteo is going to 'hurt' the writer of this article?

by Rae	12/03/07 12:16 PM
I am a Ron Paul supporter, and none of us are going to forget this DiMatteo character. Not his face, his name or his position.

by Tim	12/03/07 11:44 AM
Boy, you Republicans have a real winner in Tony Dimatteo. The mans photo is screaming for an inmate number.

by Rebecca	12/03/07 11:26 AM
The Mitt Romney crew is the Angelo Cappelli crew, is the corrupt crew, the lose at all costs by smearing the opponent and cheating crew.

by Barbara	12/03/07 11:11 AM
NOBODY CARES.

by Stacey	12/03/07 09:54 AM
Romney endorsing this type of behaviot or video: Forward it to about 7:25 of 8:07 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGBkkRf4P9M

by Chairman	12/03/07 09:21 AM
It looks to me like Romney and Paul stacked the straw poll event with their out of state supporters anyway. So, who cares and thanks for your contributions to the local GOP.

by JK	12/03/07 08:52 AM
You want to see repug voter fraud? Just wait until the real thing. This is just a warm-up.

by SgtBrad	12/03/07 08:43 AM
It goes to show the number of Paul supporters that are really out there, despite marginalization by the media. Romney's people had to cheat and Paul still came in second!

by Kendra	12/03/07 08:22 AM
How can Tony DiMatteo say this is a "non-issue"? Seems to me cheating in any form would be an issue. Why did I pay $20 for a crooked poll? Hey Tony! Here's an issue for you..I want my money back!

by Dawn	12/03/07 08:11 AM
So the republicans are planning to steal another election in a state that is already under fire...big surprise. Welcome to FL where we don't think you have enough intelligence to vote for yourself, so we will do it for you.

by rick	12/03/07 07:55 AM
just like the flordia recount famous photo of yelling people, turned out to be all republican out of state operatives. so what's new another example of how corrupt that party is. next: who's haveing sex with who? stay tuned.hyporcrites or heritics?

by Gene	12/03/07 07:49 AM
To me, it is a clear example of the people who can afford to "buy" their way believing that their opinion and right to vote is more valuable. The rich often get off after commiting crimes the rest of us would go to prison for. All is not fair.

by Evan	12/03/07 06:49 AM
If a poll is merely a fundraiser, don't dress the fundraiser in the garb of a poll. People will think that it really is a poll and expect it to be fair and honest and to actually indicate who had the most support.

by ?	12/03/07 05:55 AM
Yes, it is corrupt and disgusting. Yes, it implies that perhaps these orgainizers would go to unethical lengths to secure their interests. But wasn't this a minor poll? If we're going to rehash, go deeper.

by xtrabiggg	12/03/07 01:20 AM
This is a rereun of the Iowa straw polls, where Romney paid for busses, tickets and who knows what else to stuff the Ballot Box. Your paper should check to see who Diebold execs are supporting- my bet is they'll 'deliver' the votes for that candidate

by Patriot	12/03/07 12:45 AM
Its a shame that Mitt Romney could only win by his (people) cheating. Tony Dimatteo is as crooked as a corkscrew and so is the rest of the crew down there thats trying to stop RON PAUL. Its not going to happen, DR. RON PAUL is our next PRESIDENT!!!!!

Politics

Straw poll has some in snit

Ron Paul backers are miffed that some Mitt Romney supporters voted multiple times.