by Ed Naile
Now that former Democrat NH State Senator Burt Cohen’s “Campaign manager” has pleaded guilty to violations of FEC regulations and is awaiting his slap on the wrist, now may a be a good time to explore just what the NH news media forgot to print about this strange event.
Seeing as I used this new invention, the telephone, and called Barry Silver a former candidate in a Florida Democrat primary who had a run-in with Jesse Burchfield while campaigning for a US House seat I think I have a pretty good perspective on the entire scope of this story. I’m no expert mind you but I will use my simple tree surgeon powers of deduction to reason it out. Here goes.
Burchfield went to U. Mass where he was of all things, The Student Attorney General! He made some news for himself in that position battling the forces of the extreme right. Big deal, he was in liberal la-la land. Here is part of a Boston Globe news article from April 1999:
“The Upside Down Club is now under investigation by the U. Mass student government. The student attorney general, Jesse Burchfield, has filed a petition with the student judiciary, asking that the club’s status as a “registered student organization” be rescinded.
Burchfield is focusing on ways the group technically violates the student constitution, in this case, he says, by posing as a student-run organization while fronting for the International Churches of Christ. A hearing is expected this month.”
So Burchfield likes investigations. How ironic.
Shortly after his stint as Student Attorney General he arrives in Florida as a campaign guru for a Democrat candidate, State Rep. Anne Gannon. That is where he was subject of a lawsuit for defamation of character by Mr. Silver. But Jesse was not around to pay the piper like his employer Mrs. Gannon did. Burchfield hit the highway.
He pops up next in of all places, New Hampshire, guruing it again for our old friend Burt Cohen who lets him have complete control of his campaign.
Now the strange happenings begin – even stranger than letting this guy have complete control of a US Senate Campaign.
Cohen acquires a treasurer, a Mr. Bulchalski, but claims Burchfield has complete control of the finances?
As the campaign progresses Burchfield starts making press statements about how well the campaign is going just as the wheels fall off the wagon – the $300,000.00 wagon load of non-existent donations Burchfield invented.
Exit Burchfield – enter befuddled Burt Cohen and his bizarre quotes in the limited press stories about how he “lost” Burchfield’s resume etc. I ain’t buying.
This whole deal only makes sense if you look at it this way:
Burchfield is in all probability a transient campaign thug-for-hire paid for by some potential Democrat presidential primary candidate similar to alleged political sign-stealer, Geoff Wetrosky, who was soon to be ex-Mayor Baines’s latest campaign manager, paid for by Sen. John Kerry, living at Democrat State Chair Kathy Sullivan’s home.
Burchfield had the ability, left conveniently and completely in charge of everything, to inflate Cohen’s campaign income in an effort to scare away any other Democrat challengers as well as provide the appearance of momentum for a Cohen for US Senate campaign so as to trick more people into donating to a “winning” campaign. This was no simple case of misplaced decimal points. This was a deliberate effort to use fraud to win a US Senate seat for the State of New Hampshire and attract out of state donations.
All the excuses of incompetence, confusion, in-over-his-head, and such, are nonsense. Jesse Burchfield inadvertently sabotaged his own candidate while deliberately breaking federal election laws designed to prevent just this type of activity. He is no babe in the woods.
The fact is, Cohen should never be considered a serious candidate for anything ever again and Jessie Burchfield should be spending some of the five years in jail that he earned.