It turns out the man who appeared on TV Wednesday – without identifying himself – to say he’d registered his dog to vote is the husband of a staffer on Republican Heather Wilson’s U.S. Senate campaign.
The problem for the man, the TV station that granted him anonymity, and Wilson’s campaign? Registering your dog to vote is a felony, and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department is now looking into the situation.
Thomas Tolbert, the husband of Wilson staffer Heather Wade, sent this statement to NMPolitics.net:
“I made a mistake and I want to apologize to Bernalillo County Clerk, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, my wife, who was not aware of my actions, and the public. I will take full responsibility for my actions.”
“Full responsibility” could include pleading guilty to a felony charge.
The Wilson campaign was also quick to release a statement from Manager Bryce Dustman:
“We learned about this from the media. This was very poor judgment by a family member of an employee. He has apologized and this matter is between him and the county clerk.”
That “poor judgment” was a stunt to promote the view often touted by Republicans that voter fraud is tainting elections. Here’s what Tolbert said in his initial interview with KOB-TV – before he was identified publicly:
“He said he was trying to expose the problems with the registration system. He said he just received the dog’s voter registration card in the mail Wednesday, and it was way too easy.
“‘They should verify. Somebody should have verified this information and somebody should have come out and took a look at exactly who it was. But I made up a birth date, and I made up a social security number and I had a voter registration card in my hand for Buddy two weeks later,’ the dog owner said.”
Toulouse Oliver wasn’t happy.
“I would warn those individuals who think this type of activity is a joke or a ‘gotcha’ that, regardless of their intentions, they have broken the law and will therefore have to be subject to due process of law,” KOB-TV quoted her as saying.
Liberal group outs Tolbert
The liberal group ProgressNOW New Mexico outed Tolbert. That led to news articles in the Albuquerque Journal, Talking Points Memo and elsewhere.
Talking Points Memo explored the TV station’s controversial decision to grant anonymity:
“Danielle Todesco, the KOB Eyewitness News 4 reporter who granted Tolbert anonymity for the story, stood by her decision and said she was surprised that he appeared given his wife’s job.
“‘A lot of people we interview ask for anonymity, and we appreciated that he was still willing to put his face on camera for the story,’ Todesco told TPM in an email. ‘I was never contacted by law enforcement to ask for his identity, they have all found out on their own. Us granting him that privacy has not hindered any investigation whatsoever.’”
TPM also pointed out the political difficulty Wilson:
“The connection to the Wilson campaign is noteworthy because of her alleged role in pushing the Bush administration to fire former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias because he allegedly wasn’t quick enough in prosecuting alleged cases of voter fraud during Wilson’s 2006 campaign.”
You can read more about that here.