The media – both the legacy guys and some on the Right, too – are all over the recent arrest of Craig Callaway. The ex-Atlantic City councilman and notorious operative’s criminal charges are classic Jersey (sadly enough), and they make for great presidential election year content.
For my fellow conservatives, it’s validation of our belief that the vote-by-mail system is inherently susceptible to bad faith actors. For liberal journalists, it’s a chance to dunk on Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R, NJ-02) who employed Callaway’s vote harvesting expertise as both a Democrat and, later, as a Republican. They’ve never forgiven him for betraying the Democrat Party and joining the MAGA movement. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that Callaway, who’s been operating in South Jersey for many, many years, is only now coming under enhanced scrutiny for his alleged activities BECAUSE Van Drew is now a Republican who’s helped turn Deep South Jersey into a contested, purple jurisdiction rather than a protectorate of the Camden County Machine. But that’s a discussion for another time…
This is a federal prosecution. The specific allegation is that Callaway’s operation paid $30 to $50 to ballot mules who applied to be messengers and then voted for the applicants who were completely ignorant to the scam. There’s nothing wrong with being a messenger provided you follow the rules, but you obviously can’t vote FOR someone.
“Voter fraud at any level chips away at the faith people have in our system,” said FBI Special Agent James E. Dennehy in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “We’re unable as American citizens to hold our government accountable if our votes are compromised. The FBI and our law enforcement partners understand the gravity of protecting the process and will bring those criminals who break the law to justice.”
Atlantic County Democrats were equally pleased back in November when a state judge barred Callaway from acting as an assistor at the polls. “Craig Callaway always finds a loophole in the system to fraudulently obtain votes,” complained Atlantic County Democrat Chairman Michael Suleiman. “Craig Callaway is exploiting a law meant to help disabled residents to further his fraudulent election activities.”
But it wasn’t very long ago when South Jersey Democrats in Suleiman’s own party relied on the legendary Callaway operation to serve their purposes and gain a decisive edge in critical local electoral battles. Back in 2017, then A.C. Mayor Don Guardian (now a Republican Assemblyman) actually hired private investigators to surveil the Callaway ballot harvesting process. In 2020, before she lost to Van Drew in the general, Democrat Amy Kennedy had reportedly utilized the Callaway organization to secure both the Atlantic County Democrat convention and the NJ-02 congressional nomination. The Callaways then switched team for the general and the rest, as they say, is history.
Democrats’ affection for Callaway has waxed and waned, but they’re consistent in their inconsistency of only caring about election integrity and democracy when it suits them. If they can use a Russia hoax to torpedo a GOP president’s agenda? Or castigate an operative with deep Democrat roots who’s no longer useful to them? They care… a lot! And loudly. But I’ll answer my own question posed in this post’s headline: Democrats will continue to ignore the obvious problems with a deeply-flawed national electoral system where votes pass through multiple hands over the course of many weeks.
I’ll leave Craig Callaway’s guilt or innocence to a jury, but we don’t need a trial to point out the obvious: he’s a mercenary. A man without a country or a party. You can hate him if you want, but then you’re hating the player instead of getting serious about addressing the game – a corrupt one – that made him a legend and continues to imperil our republican form of government.
