A reader writes: “This is the Gate City mayor talking about the corruption and crime down in Jerry’s home area. He several times basically accuses the Kilgores of running a political protection racket, complete with a now soon-to-be-felon bragging about how he’s spoken to the AG (Jerry) and there will be no investigation of his crimes. Pretty outrageous stuff, and this from a Republican who’s apparently not afraid to throw back the curtain on what Gate City is all about.”
Republican mayor Mark Jenkins’ piece in the Scott County Virginia Star is pretty strong. And rightly so — he had the election stolen from him through fraud, and he took it right back, leading to the recent indictment of former Gate City mayor Charles Dougherty on 18 counts of aiding and abetting in violating the absentee voting process, 17 counts of making a false statement on an absentee ballot application, and two counts of conspiracy. The theme of his piece is on “taking it personally,” which he did, and he explains why. The bits that I found particularly interesting, with regard to Jerry Kilgore, are:
I took it personally when Jerry Kilgore, while serving as Virginia’s Attorney General, publicly made the comment that nothing was intentionally done wrong in the Gate City Election when I knew differently. In my opinion, he was trying to stop any possibility of an investigation into this matter. If I had not continued to push, I believe that is exactly what would have happened. In my opinion, just the unusual high percentage of absentee votes alone would suggest an impropriety to anyone of marginal intelligence.
And yes, it would have been in the best interest of a few people if I had dropped this and just “moved on” as Jerry suggested, but this was personal. And also we’re talking about everyone’s basic right to fair elections.
[…]
I also took it personally when Martha told me that I needed to get out of the Republican Party if I couldn’t get behind and support the Kilgores. In effect, I think she told me that there was no longer a true Republican Party in Scott County but that it was now the “Kilgorian Party.”
[…]
I took it personally when a Judge stopped by my home to tell me that I had better be careful of crossing the Kilgores because they would “grind me up and spit me out like they had done him before he learned to play their game.”
The Kilgore family is mighty powerful down in Gate City. There have been no formal charges made against Jerry Kilgore’s mother, Willie Mae Kilgore, for having any role in this election scandal as the registrar of voters. With Kilgore’s father the county’s Republican Party chair, his twin brother the local representative to he House of Delegates, and his other brother the head of the county economic development authority, I can’t help but suspect that there may be something to the accusations that the Kilgore family must have known about this election fraud.