Electing To Murder by Roger Stelljes Read Free Book Online

bureau working against organized crime along the east coast. It was work that led to her needing the help of McCormick and the Judge years later. It was that help that now led to her service to the Thomson presidential campaign. A topic the Judge was now discussing with her.
    Wire called the Judge in the morning about what she witnessed in Kentucky. His radar immediately went off when told the details, particularly the shots fired. There was something going on at that meeting, something related to the election and something Heath Connolly couldn’t allow to get into the open. Ever since the campaign finance scandal two months ago, the Judge had worried that Connolly would go even blacker in trying to win the election. Kentucky made him worry he was right.
    “Did you track down the rental car?” the Judge asked.
    “Yeah, your Justice Department guy helped me out—car was rented to a Jason Stroudt of Alexandria, Virginia. Does his name ring a bell?”
    The Judge leaned back in his chair and looked to the ceiling. After a minute, he said, “Kinda. It’s a name I know I’ve heard before for some reason.”
    “I figured you might have. Stroudt, along with Adam Montgomery run …”
    The Judge snapped his fingers: “… The Congressional Page. I know Montgomery’s name. He’s a writer for some of the political publications that interest the ‘inside the beltway crowd.’ I guess Stroudt probably does some of that as well, but I’ve heard of Montgomery more. They probably run the blog as another form of business.”
    “Looks like it,” Wire answered, “at least based on my research today.”
    “Montgomery, he’s had some articles show up on RealClearPolitics from time to time, lately commentary on campaign finance,
Citizens United
and Super PACs. Historically, the blog tended to mostly cover congressional issues, the progress of bills in the House and Senate, committee issues, real inside baseball kind of stuff with a focus on good government. They tend to lean a little right politically, David Brooks Republicans as opposed to the Tea Party types. I’ve seen Montgomery interviewed a few times on C-SPAN. He’s not a real dynamic personality. He’s more or less a grinder who works Capitol Hill.”
    “If you say so, Judge,” Wire replied. “The blog page is down today. I haven’t been able to pull it up and I’ve gone back to it several times. No go. Calls to their offices are just rolling to voice mail, nobody is picking up. So I did some further Internet research on them. I noted the inside politics stuff as, well, pretty bland, I could use it to cure my insomnia.” She flipped through her notes. “However, if you go back far enough, they appear to have another pet issue.”
    “Which is?”
    “Voter and election fraud.” Wire handed over copies of the articles printed off the web.
    “Voter suppression and voter ID issues?” the Judge inquired.
    “No, more like actual fraud in elections,” Wire answered, handing printouts of the articles to Dixon.
    The Judge took a quick scan of the articles. The first one by Montgomery involved a review of the voting irregularities in Florida post 2000. In Montgomery’s view, despite efforts in some counties, many areas in Florida remained susceptible to voting issues because modernized voting machines had not been put in place. Two other articles authored by Montgomery reviewed voting irregularities in Ohio in 2004.
    “So our boys are interested in campaign finance and voter fraud, they show up last night in Kentucky and Connolly’s boys are shooting at them when they’re discovered.” The Judge raised an eyebrow. “So what the hell did they see?”
    “I didn’t get a chance to see myself, Judge,” Wire answered. “I didn’t have a chance to get into position before all hell broke loose. All I have is the photos. I can easily identify Connolly but the rest will take a while. Sorry, I wish I had more.”
    The Judge took out one of his cigars and lit it,