Patrick Moran, the son of Virginia Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and the field director for his father's reelection bid, resigned abruptly Wednesday after a video linked him to voter fraud. The video -- released earlier in the day by Project Veritas, a conservative organization headed by the Republican activist James O'Keefe -- revealed that the younger Moran had weighed options for helping an undercover operative cast votes on behalf of 100 people who allegedly weren't planning to vote.
"There will be a lot of voter protection, so, if they just have, you know, the utility bill or bank statement -- bank statement would obviously be tough ... but faking a utility bill would be easy enough," Moran says, apparently referring to options for getting around Virginia's voter ID laws.
Moran's campaign issued a statement confirming the congressman's son had stepped down.
"Patrick is well liked and was a well-respected member of the campaign team. This incident, however, was clearly an error in judgment. The campaign has accepted Patrick's resignation, effective immediately," the statement said.
The resignation comes just a day after Rep. Moran and two other Virginia Democrats -- Reps. Gerry Connolly and Bobby Scott -- had urged the Justice Department to launch an investigation into Strategic Allied Consulting, a GOP firm linked to separate allegations of voter registration fraud in Virginia and Florida.
| Questions for anyone with the time to run them down: 1) what will Mr. Patrick Moran be doing Monday? He has left his father's campaign and no longer has a paid job. How will he spend his time? I'm afraid I know the answer but I don't want to appear too cynical. 2) what will Mr. Patrick Moran be doing in six months? Twelve months? Unless I miss my guess, he'll be employed by a Soros-funded NGO. 3) remember those folks at ACORN Mr. O'Keefe previously burned? Where do they work today? Who signs their checks? What are they doing in the two weeks before the election? I'm speculating that the nut doesn't fall too far from the tree. The points are simple: first, that these folks are crooked through and through. But more important, unless the conservative side has concerted follow through and an institutional memory, folks like Mr. Moran and the ACORN-ites will simply lay low for a short while and then pick up doing just what they were doing before. Someone else will be signing their checks but the job will be the same. I applaud Mr. O'Keefe, and I'm especially happy with Prof. Jacobson's efforts at Legal Insurrection. But one thing the conservative moment needs is the ability to watch the people we've caught. Leopards don't change their spots. |