Reynolds' smear campaign falls flat

Tom Reynolds smear campaign update:

The Dohnal-Blonien garbage peddlers didn't get what they wanted from the Wauwatosa weekly. They did get a story, but it didn't quite play out the way they hoped:

Senate race heats up
Vote fraud claim rejected by district attorney’s office in 2000 brought up again

... This week old allegations dismissed six years ago by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office surfaced again in an attempt to discredit Democratic Senate challenger James Sullivan Jr., a Wauwatosa alderman.

Sullivan is running against incumbent Republican Sen. Tom Reynolds for the seat.

Wauwatosa resident Stan Zurawski Sr. this week contacted media outlets with allegations originally made by other Wauwatosa residents that Sullivan voted twice in the 1996 presidential election — once in Whitefish Bay and once in Wauwatosa.

These allegations came up in 2000 during Sullivan’s successful bid for Wauwatosa’s 5th District aldermanic seat.

At the time, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, led then as today by E. Michael McCann, dismissed the claims as unfounded due to unreliable records, according to a copy of a letter written by Assistant District Attorney Kurt Benkley, who believed the voting in Whitefish Bay was done by James Sullivan Sr., Sullivan’s father.

Records were unreliable

What Zurawski failed to provide with his allegations this week was that part of the story — that the district attorney’s office found the voter history list from Whitefish Bay to be unreliable.

It makes Zurawski look a little less than stable and reliable, too:

Zurawski Sr., who claims to be a victim of voter fraud himself, said that the district attorney’s office never fully investigated the roughly 30 claims he made against the city alleging voter fraud when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Theresa Estness in 2000...

When asked if he believed his own allegations that Sullivan voted twice, Zurawski Sr. said, “Did he vote twice? I don’t know, but whether he voted or didn’t vote twice, there should have been an investigation and there wasn’t.”

UPDATE: State Sen. and candidate Tom Reynolds himself has admitted he played a role in getting the smear campaign rolling. Story Hill's website reports:

Reynolds acknowledged that he personally directed Michael Goggins, who first made the allegations, to send relevant voting records to JJ Blonien, a Reynolds campaign consultant, who helped ensure their further spread.

"What Mike Goggins has is interesting information," Reynolds said in an interview.

UPDATE: Reynolds may duck debate.