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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Democrats claim Griffith's consultants took vital data from party on eve of party switch

Democrats demand return of voter data from Griffith

The Alabama Democratic Party is claiming the campaign of U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith downloaded sensitive voter identification data on the eve of his switch to the Republican party.
Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said the data is the property of the party. He demanded the information be returned and be deleted from the hard drive of Griffith's political consultants or the party will consider legal action.
State Democrats believe Griffith's consultants, Main Street Strategies of Huntsville, downloaded the information to help the congressman "in his new role as a Republican."
Griffith announced his switch to the Republican party in his hometown of Huntsville on Tuesday and said his values are more in line with Washington Republicans.
After hearing about the switch, state Democratic officials took security measures to stop the transfer of any more information.
"The Democratic Party has spent untold sums of money building good data for elections and we make that data available to our Democratic candidates and officeholders. Mr. Griffith's campaign benefited from this asset, and he wouldn't be a congressman today without it," Turnham said in a statement. "Yet, in the wee hours before he became a Republican, Parker Griffith's political operatives, with full knowledge of what was occurring, went online and downloaded our confidential records."
Griffith and his consultants "knew full well this information was the property of the Democratic Party," said Jim Spearman, executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party.
"It is my personal hope that Congressman Griffith knew nothing of this act and that it was the lone unethical action of a political consultant," Turnham said. "But the party will consult with our attorney, and with authorities if necessary, to assess our remedy in these matters. If an apology is made and the data returned, we could consider moving on based on the goodwill of this season."

-- posted by Sebastian Kitchen

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