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AN OPEN LETTER TO TERRANCE P. FLYNN

Dear Mr. Flynn,

As the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, you review thousands of cases every year for possible criminal prosecution under the federal statutes. We'd like to call your attention to one more.

It is our belief that the New York State Board of Elections is currently involved in a concerted effort to interfere with a federal election, the Sept. 9 Democratic Primary between Jon Powers and Jack Davis for New York's 26th District congressional seat. To that end, they have subpoenaed the Niagara Falls Reporter -- we believe illegally -- in an attempt to procure our business records.

Aside from the First Amendment issues raised by the subpoena, which are in themselves quite serious, it is obvious that its timing, less than one month before the election, was designed to cast suspicion on Davis and intimidate this newspaper at the same time.

For the record, I can assure you that the Niagara Falls Reporter has never done any business whatsoever with Davis. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, no one working for the paper has ever even spoken to Mr. Davis or anyone associated with his campaign.

We have, however, run a couple of articles about Powers, his phony ÒcharitableÓ fund-raising activities and his association with disreputable political bagmen in both Niagara and Erie counties. Frankly, when we learned the candidate also has a criminal record, we weren't surprised.

But Powers does have the backing of Western New York's Democratic machine, a corrupt cabal that rivals the Tammany Hall of old insofar as its use of official institutions such as the state Board of Elections to harass honest citizens and guarantee political outcomes. These influence peddlers, ward heelers and palm greasers can apparently count on appointed officials in Albany such as William J. McCann Jr., the Board of Elections' special deputy counsel for enforcement, to do their dirty work for them.

Under the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, primary elections to nominate congressional candidates are subject to federal protection. And one of the protections specifically implied is the protection against intimidation. See United States v. Classic, United States v. Wurzbach, United States v. Saylor and others.

The subpoena signed by McCann last week was clearly an effort to intimidate. In our view, his activities are fully covered under Chapter 29, Sections 594 and 595 of the Federal Election Campaign Laws compiled by the Federal Elections Commission.

We further believe that, since McCann was acting at the behest of the Democratic Party leadership in Western New York, it is likely that the federal RICO statute could be used in the prosecution of this case.

Sincerely,

The Niagara Falls Reporter

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com August 19 2008