And another thing …
Robert Cantrell has decided what he wants to be when he grows up - a Democrat
Times Editorial
NWI Times
November 26, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/and-another-thing/article_560c145f-d80b-5c12-b3ec-70fc133f8df5.html
Finally, Robert Cantrell has decided what he wants to be when he grows up - a Democrat.
Cantrell, the man who professed for years he was a Republican, has come out and made it official. He will become a Democrat, one of the most unsurprising political announcements of the century by this long-time Republican Party chairman of East Chicago.
Presumably with a straight face, Cantrell said he won't be a sideline Democrat. As if it were ever otherwise. Even he admits that.
He actively helped fellow Democrat Thomas Philpot win the primary race for county clerk. In his own words, "I was Philpot's main man."
He also was a contributor to the campaign of another Republican-turned-Democrat - Thomas McDermott Jr., who won the Hammond mayoral race over incumbent Republican Duane Dedelow Jr.
So, after years of denying the obvious, Cantrell becomes a Democrat. Can this be a prelude to becoming an official City Hall member of the McDermott entourage?
Your opinion, please
Should Robert Cantrell be given a job in the administration of Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr.?
Cantrell comes out as Democrat
Former GOP boss says he'll bring energy, friends
NWI Times
Nov 25, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/cantrell-comes-out-as-democrat/article_e6f251f1-1cc4-5531-976b-e9c5e8e92c34.html
EAST CHICAGO -- Longtime city Republican Party boss Robert Cantrell said Monday he will officially become what many say he has been all along -- a Democrat.
"All my life I've been a registered Republican, and in May I'll declare myself a Democrat," said Cantrell, 62, who headed the party in East Chicago on and off since 1972 until he resigned under pressure in January after a meeting with then county GOP Chairman Roger Chiabai.
In his resignation letter, Cantrell pledged to continue to vote Republican and said he would work in 2004 to elect a Republican governor.
Chiabai himself was removed from his position in March by state Republicans who said in 13 years as chairman, he had failed to unite the party.
Current Lake County Republican Chairman John Curley said he was not fazed by Cantrell's announcement.
"He's always been (a Democrat) in reality, so he might as well be one in name," he said.
County Democratic Party Chairman Stephen Stiglich, the county auditor, did not respond to several telephone calls seeking comment Tuesday, but Cantrell said he has not informed Stiglich of his decision.
Cantrell said he does not plan to be a sideline Democrat.
"I will be active. I became active when my daughter ran as a Democrat, because I had to protect her, although I was the only one in my family to vote Republican that year," he said of his daughter Julie's successful campaign for county court judge in 1996.
Julie Cantrell won her second term without opposition in 2000.
"I guess I did a pretty good job of protecting her," her father said with a laugh.
Robert Cantrell said he "can bring a lot of friends, a lot of knowledge and a lot of energy" to the Democratic Party, and said he has already proven his worth by assisting Clerk-elect Thomas Philpot, a Democrat, in his primary fight against former County Councilwoman Bernadette "Bobbi" Costa.
Cantrell also brings some baggage -- sources say he is one of numerous targets of a Lake County grand jury investigation into absentee ballot fraud in East Chicago and for recruiting two convicted felons to run in the May Democratic primary against City Clerk Mary Morris Leonard.
"I was Philpot's main man, and we also helped (Sheriff Rogelio) Dominguez," said Cantrell, whose daughter employs Dominguez' wife, Betty, as her chief probation officer.
At his victory party as clerk, Philpot publicly thanked Cantrell for all his support, saying the GOP chief had been with him "every step of the way." The public acclaim by a Democratic candidate was too much for even Cantrell's supporters inside the GOP to bear.
Curley said he doesn't see the defection as hurting or helping either party.
"He's not going to act any differently than he already does," Curley said. "I don't think it's going to do anything. Bobby Cantrell will be Bobby Cantrell."
The straw that broke the Republican camel's back was Cantrell's involvement with the Hammond mayoral campaign of Thomas McDermott Jr., who is a partner in a Hammond law firm with John Cantrell, Robert's son.
McDermott, another Republican-turned-Democrat, beat incumbent Republican Duane Dedelow Jr. in the November election.
Robert Cantrell was a contributor to McDermott's campaign. And some of Dedelow's campaign literature played on fears that McDermott was going to turn Hammond into an "East Chicago-style political machine."
Already under pressure to oust Cantrell because of Philpot's comments, Chiabai reluctantly confronted Cantrell at a breakfast meeting and accepted his resignation.
"I told him I wasn't gonna fire him, and he decided it's time," Chiabai said in February. "And while a lot of people might not agree, he's done a lot of good for the Republican Party over there. He's always been a friend of mine. We've been in some wars with each other, and against each other, and through it all, I've always appreciated his knowledge of politics in Lake County."
Cantrell said being the GOP chairman in a Democratic stronghold like East Chicago was a thankless job that some people in his party failed to understand.
"It's hard to get inner city people to vote Republican," he said. "In the last election, we got out 1,000 (Republican) votes for governor, and I take a lot of pride in that."
Whether or not there is a place for Robert Cantrell in the McDermott administration, Cantrell said he has no regrets about backing McDermott.
"A lot of East Chicago people have migrated to Hammond, and I don't think that (Dedelow ads) hurt us," he said. "The proof of the pudding is that McDermott won and he's only going to get stronger. I'm not knocking Dedelow, but McDermott's going to do the job and be as good a mayor as Hammond's ever had."
The elder Cantrell is employed as an "office liaison" in the East Chicago office of the North Township trustee, Democrat Gregory Cvitkovich, and was criticized by fellow Republicans in February for contributing 2 percent of his salary to Cvitkovich's re-election campaign.
Four named in vote fraud probe
East Chicago charges are just the beginning in absentee ballot investigation, prosecutors say
NWI Times
Nov 19, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/four-named-in-vote-fraud-probe/article_a4c657c8-ce3b-5667-9803-4381cce6cf11.html
CROWN POINT -- Four people have been charged as part of a special Lake County grand jury investigation into allegations of widespread voter fraud, county Prosecutor Bernard Carter announced Tuesday.
The allegations range from obstruction of justice to illegal voting, and are just the start of the indictments, said Carter and Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, who have been overseeing the grand jury since it was empaneled Aug. 22 to investigate the May primary.
In May, East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's Democratic primary victory was challenged by George Pabey, who lost the election by 278 votes out of 10,177 cast in a three-way race in which former City Judge Lonnie Randolph also ran.
Among the more serious violations alleged are those against Allen "Twig" Simmons, 36, of 4928 Jonquil Lane, East Chicago, who supposedly paid visits to the homes of people subpoenaed to testify at the Pabey challenge, warning them against incriminating him.
A woman told Indiana State Police investigator Mark Day that she got a subpoena to appear at the challenge, but before she testified, Simmons came to her home and told her, "Don't say anything. Don't say nothing, Don't say, don't say I filled out your ballot."
He allegedly told the woman and her boyfriend he would "whoop their butts" if they appeared and testified, which they nevertheless did.
Other similar stories were told by people who said they had been solicited by Simmons to sign absentee ballots and allow him to fill them out.
Simmons is charged with three counts of obstruction of justice and six counts related to fraudulent application, showing, examination, receipt or delivery of ballots.
Absentee ballots held the key to the Pastrick victory. Although he finished the race 199 votes behind Pabey at the polls, Pastrick's margin of victory in the absentee balloting was 477 votes, enough to push him to victory by 278 votes.
In his Aug. 13 ruling, Special Judge Steven King of LaPorte County found numerous examples of fraud, threats and connivance on the part of numerous Pastrick workers, and in the end threw out 155 votes -- few enough to allow Pastrick to win the election by 123 votes.
One of those allegedly solicited to vote absentee -- even though he did not plan to be out of town -- was Jimmy Lee Franklin, 50, of 4753 Alexander Ave., East Chicago.
Franklin was named during the Pabey challenge as having signed a ballot at the request of Ashley Dunlap, from whom Franklin rents his apartment, and having turned them over to Dunlap, who owns a business that has contracts with the city of East Chicago.
When state police interviewed Franklin, said Day, his attitude changed when told he would have to testify before the special grand jury. "He told (me) he would not appear," Day said, "and (I) explained that his intentional failure to comply with the subpoena could result in his prosecution."
Franklin did not appear when subpoenaed on Nov. 6, and subsequently was charged.
The final charges announced Tuesday were the indictments of Robert Croy, 73, and his wife, Dolores Croy, 67, both of 2620 W. 39th Ave., Hobart, for allegedly voting in East Chicago's precinct 5-4 in the May election.
The allegations are that Croy, a parks department employee, and his wife used the address of Charlie Tuna's Tap, 3802 Parrish Ave., as their home address for voting purposes.
Charlie "Tuna" Pacurar, who owned the bar until 1976 when he was elected city clerk and turned it over to his brother, said Tuesday he does not recall the couple ever having lived at the bar -- which has apartments above it -- although he said he knows the couple.
Dolores Croy once worked at Charlie Tuna's. Pacurar, who helped Stephen Stiglich run his 2000 campaign for mayor against Pastrick, also worked on the Pabey campaign this year.
The Pacurar family no longer owns Charlie Tuna's, having sold it after the 1995 death of Charlie's brother, Daniel, in 1995.
Bernard Carter declined to say how high he believes the probe will reach. "A number of individuals have been targeted," he said, although he declined to name individuals targeted or give a number of targets.
He said although the focus of Tuesday's charges is East Chicago, the investigation into similar voting irregularities in the Schererville judge's race is very much alive.
In that primary contest, incumbent Deborah Riga beat challenger Kenneth Anderson by 11 votes, but her nomination was reversed last month by a recount judge who declared Anderson the winner after disqualifying 23 absentee ballots in her name.
The grand jury also focused on allegations revolving around absentee ballots linked to Bosko "Bob" Grkinich, a Schererville businessman and Democratic committeeman of Schererville's heavily Serbian 10th Precinct.
Neither Bernard Carter nor Steve Carter would confirm or deny that Grkinich received a letter informing him that he is a target of the grand jury.
Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita praised the investigation Tuesday.
"Today's actions are a good first step in our effort to give government back to the people of Lake County. People who have followed these cases know that these charges and indictments are the tip of the voter fraud iceberg in Lake County," Rokita said.
Judge-elect has new ideas for town court
Kenneth Anderson plans to create small claims division
NWI Times
Nov 16, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/judge-elect-has-new-ideas-for-town-court/article_43a5741b-505c-5db7-abae-684324392678.html
SCHERERVILLE -- It's been a long road to the bench for Kenneth Anderson.
The road won't end when Anderson is sworn in Jan. 1. That only will be the beginning of a new era for the Schererville Town Court, which the judge-elects hopes to improve and expand.
After a several month legal battle, Anderson will begin a four-year term as Schererville town judge replacing one-term judge Deborah Riga.
Anderson was victorious in their election battle, which centered on Anderson's contention that Riga's 11-vote win in the May Democratic primary was invalid because many absentee ballots cast for Riga were illegal. A Lake County judge agreed with Anderson and overturned 23 ballots, handing Anderson the party's nomination.
Anderson did not face a Republican challenger in the November general election, guaranteeing him the job Jan. 1.
Anderson said he has done a lot of thinking about the position, and he has some ideas about how he'd like to improve the court, making it more efficient.
He has several initiatives, including working closely with the police and probation departments to set up a minor offender program that would include community service, establish an adult substance abuse program in the community and create a civil division within the court.
Anderson has not had a chance to look at the staff but said he has "no desire to remove anyone with good abilities and good knowledge of the court."
"I am gathering information about what will be most efficient for the court and the community," he said.
The court, which has a budget of nearly $112,000, is open Mondays through Thursdays, with sessions from 9 a.m. to noon the second and third Mondays and starting at 4 p.m. Thursdays until all cases on the docket have been heard.
Anderson has not made any definite decisions but as a practicing attorney who will maintain his own office, he also is looking at having a full day of court rather than a couple of half days for greater efficiency.
The minor offender program would reinstitute a program in place under previous Judge Daniel Dumezich, where young people who committed an offense, such as minor consumption of alcohol or marijuana, would be given community service.
"I think it was a good idea," Anderson said. "The offenders cleaned up Airport Road, garbage was removed and they painted and completed repairs at the (baseball field) dug outs. I think the young people felt a sense of accomplishment and it was something that helped the town."
Under Riga, that program was discontinued. However, she instituted an educational component for young people who committed infractions.
Riga could not be reached for comment regarding some of the new ideas.
However, Riga and Anderson have communicated by letter regarding plans for a smooth transition.
Anderson said he's had some initial conversations with some of the town's officers, who said the community service program was positive, and they are interested in being involved in it.
Although Schererville Police Chief Daniel Smith has not talked directly to Anderson about his ideas, Smith said he expects he will meet with Anderson before he takes office.
Anderson said he is working with Campagna Academy to develop a program for adult substance abusers that would keep them in town. Anderson has served as the attorney for Campagna for 12 years.
"The classic situation is a DUI (driving while under the influence) where someone may need an educational component," he said, adding that abusers currently go outside of the community for that service and he'd like to offer it in Schererville.
The cornerstone of Anderson's plan is creating a civil division.
Right now, Schererville residents who have a dispute with a neighbor have to go to Crown Point to have the case heard.
"Most towns have courts with a civil division," he said, including Gary, Merrillville and Hammond.
"Schererville doesn't have one but it needs one. It provides for modest collections and for restitution for things like shoplifting. It makes a court more complete. It will keep Schererville disputes within Schererville and provide a forum for the collection of debts," Anderson said.
Schererville Town Manager Richard Krame said he is excited about the prospect of bringing the community service for minor offenders back and the establishment of a civil division.
"The civil division is a very good idea," Krame said. "We have talked some but not completely. I expect we will sit down and talk before he takes office."
Krame said the community service component for minors also helped to keep the town and roads clean.
"The educational classes had merit but I like the idea of community service a lot," he said.
Vote fraud investigation continues
Six people called before grand jury
NWI Times
Nov 14, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/vote-fraud-investigation-continues/article_6ae65e7a-0d49-5633-ae24-694059270a19.html
CROWN POINT -- A special grand jury continued Thursday questioning people allegedly involved in an absentee vote fraud scandal in East Chicago.
Six people were called before a panel of county residents who have been hearing testimony for several weeks on whether supporters of Mayor Robert Pastrick skirted state election laws to obtain enough votes to win the Democratic primary last spring.
The grand jury's activities are secret, but Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter has made no secret of his interest in that mayoral race.
Pastrick needed a wave of absentee ballots to win the primary by 278 votes over East Chicago City Councilman George Pabey, who promptly demanded a recount.
Pabey's supporters uncovered a large number of absentee ballots for Pastrick that were improperly cast from addresses that were empty lots or vacant homes, by people living outside the city or who received improper assistance from Pastrick's campaign workers.
Special Lake Superior Court Judge Steven King, who presided over a three-week trial on the matter last summer, issued a 104-page opinion that the East Chicago Democratic mayoral primary may have been a textbook example of chicanery and threw out 155 votes, but that still left Pastrick with a 123-vote majority.
Pabey's allegations sparked a joint investigation by the Lake County prosecutor's office and the Indiana attorney general, which has resulted in the grand jury probe.
The grand jury also has heard testimony from more than two dozen Schererville residents with regard to the Schererville town judge race.
Judge Deborah Riga won the spring primary by 11 votes, but her nomination was reversed by a recount judge who disqualified 23 absentee ballots in her name and declared challenger Kenneth Anderson the winner.
