I did a search and yes, there was a diary on this topic Saturday morning by BlogActive http://www.dailykos.com/... but I think the story deserves more attention than it received. I did some research and added some pertinent information and aspects to consider.
Michael Aaron Lay, campaign aide to Congressman Patrick McHenry R-NC, was indicted on May 7, 2007 on voter fraud charges. Lay was working for McHenry’s congressional campaign and getting paid for that with checks to a Tennessee address, but he registered to vote using the congressman’s Cherryville, NC address and voted in Gaston County, NC in 2004. When Lay received a traffic ticket in March 2005 in Gaston County, his driver’s license and auto registration still showed his Tennessee address. Well, no biggie on first sight, Lay at the time was a student in Knoxville, Tennessee. Students move a lot and no one is denying that Lay did spend a lot of time at the congressman’s residence. But a grand jury saw differently and Lay has been indicted for voter fraud.
Reported by CBS news on May 11:
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
McHenry won the primary by only 86 votes. According to Gaston County, North Carolina District Attorney Locke Bell, Lay was indicted on Monday, May 7 by a local grand jury.
CBS News has learned that these charges were first investigated by the North Carolina State Board of Elections up to two years ago. The results were forwarded to the previous Gaston County District Attorney Mike Lands. In January, Bell was elected the new district attorney for the county and pursued the indictment.
From InterstateQ blog – a GLBT activist in North Carolina
http://www.interstateq.com/...
While looking over the activities of Michael Aaron Lay during the 2004 election year my attention was drawn to a traffic ticket that he received in March of 2005. Originally, the ticket drew my interest because Mr. Lay continued to show his voter registration in North Carolina, but on the day of the ticket his residence, his vehicle registration and his license were all from Tennessee. Out of curiosity I pulled the ticket from Gaston County, and I noted the time of the infraction. Michael Aaron Lay was pulled over at 4:57 am on a Thursday morning heading down Highway 321 in Dallas, Gaston County. Presumably Mr. Lay was leaving his "home" in Cherryville on his way to I-40 and Knoxville, TN where he was attending law school.
I’m trying to steer around the unconfirmed steamy allegations of what this all looks like. I wouldn’t give a hoot if their relationship turns out to be more than platonic, BUT McHenry was one of the Republican attack dogs who tried to discredit the importance of the Mark Foley story after it broke.
Lay, the campaign aide/law student, isn’t sitting pretty. I checked and he is attending University of Tennessee School of Law, looks like third year. He was on the moot court team for international law and on something called the transactions staff. I don’t think it’s good for a law student to be indicted. Still has to go to trial, so cooperating, implicating McHenry or making a deal could be the ticket to saving his law career. It’s going to be hard for a law student or a congressman to claim they didn’t know any better. I hope legal minds will weigh in on the severity of the charges and implications for McHenry.
But there’s more...
BlogActive reports finding another McHenry staff member who registered in the congressman’s district just in time to vote while still being paid at a different address according to FEC records. From the documents, it appears this voting address is not the congressman’s address. That doesn’t look particularly damning to me, but BlogActive also has found voter registrations on two additional men. At least one of them, maybe both, it’s not clear to me, used McHenry’s address for voter registration. Please go look at the "evidence" at the site address below, but pay careful attention that the obvious address on the voter registrations is the address of the polling place, not residence, although at least two of the four are using McHenry’s Requa Rd. address for their voter registrations.
If there is any confusion, the original diary was posted by DKos screen name BlogActive who also has a weblog named BlogActive.
You can find the documents here. http://www.blogactive.com/...
McHenry represents a strongly Republican district. The primary election was his battlefield. Once he won the primary, he was a shoe-in.
So one of two things is going on. Either people are illegally using McHenry’s address for voter fraud, apparently to vote for him in a very close election, and a grand jury thought this was the case in at least one instance OR it’s raining men at the McHenry house.
I’m focusing on the voter fraud aspect and whether McHenry was aware of it. If McHenry indeed does live in a house full of men, good for him, but there are many legitimate reasons to dislike him.
Gleaned from Wikipedia:
• McHenry worked for a media consulting firm overseeing Rick Lazio’s campaign against Hillary Clinton during her 2000 Senate bid.
• Also worked on Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and was volunteer coordinator of the inaugural committee.
• He was one of 20 representatives who voted against reinstating the House ethics rules in place after they were changed, allegedly in order to protect House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
• In 2006 McHenry voted against renewal of the Voting Rights Act.
If this story grew some legs, several possibilities could happen. If it turns out McHenry knew or encouraged voter fraud by his employees, he could be forced to resign. Any history of misdeeds, or association with misdeeds, could hurt him in the next election. At the very least, I would hope for a less rabid hard-line voting record on certain issues in the future.