For a safe Democratic seat, Virginia’s Eighth Congressional District is creating an awful lot of turmoil. Incumbent congressman Jim Moran’s son, Pat, was forced to resign his position as campaign field director after after a video by right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe showed him helping to commit voter fraud by advising an undercover reporter how to forge the names of voters.
Here’s Examiner Virginia reporter Steve Contorno’s report:
In the video, Patrick Moran is approached by a man claiming to have the names of 100 Virginia residents who are registered to vote but unlikely to do so. The man, who is holding a hidden camera, asks Moran how he can cast votes for those Virginians.
Moran encourages the man to focus his time on legitimate get-out-the-vote efforts. But he also tells the man to forge utility bills with the names and addresses of the 100 Virginians and use those documents as a form of voter ID when casting votes in their name.
“So, if they just have the utility bill or bank statement — bank statement would obviously be tough — but faking a utility bill would be easy enough,” Moran says in the video.
Patrick Moran, the field director for his father’s re-election campaign, announced his resignation just hours after the video was released.
There will probably be some uncomfortable moments in the Moran household this holiday season.
