Dem Lieutenant Gov Tells Patrick
Debt Not Forgiven with PA Payoff

Capitol Inside
October 22, 2021

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's Democratic counterpart in Pennsylvania sought to rub the Texas leader's nose in his own monumental mess on Friday with a claim that he still owes a substantial sum in bounty payments to Democrats in the Quaker State for busting Republicans for voter fraud.

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman suggested in a tweet that Patrick is off base if he thinks that a single $25,000 to a Democratic poll watcher would absolve him of his debt to Democrats who nailed a handful of Republicans who've been convicted of illegal voting in 2020 or will be soon.

"Four (4) dead relatives + one (1) dad disguised in sunglasses voting for Trump is 100% of the voter fraud committed in PA in 2020. TX LG Dan Patrick still needs to make it rain $2M in PA," Fetterman said in the social media post.

Patrick ventured into virgin territory a week after the 2020 general election when he hatched a $1 million reward fund in a search for information that could help Donald Trump substantiate baseless claims of a worldwide conspiracy by Democrats to steal the White House from him at the ballot box.

The novel ploy blew up in Patrick's face from the start when Fetterman made a play for the prize money based on several voter fraud cases that the authorities planned to prosecute with GOP voters who backed Trump as the defendants. Patrick ignored the heckling from Pennsylvania while basing a restrictive voting bill on concerns about the fraud that he'd failed to turn up after several months.

But Patrick's foray into bounty hunting took a stunning twist on Thursday with a report by the Dallas Morning News on the five-figure sum that he shelled out to Chester County Democrat Eric Frank for snitching on a Trump supporter who voted for himself and his son on the same day at the same polling place.

The convicted cheater - health care firm executive Ralph Holloway Thurman - defended himself against felony and misdemeanor charges by claiming that Frank and his father who happened to be the precinct judge had conspired to set him up. Testimony in the case made it appear like prosecutors had Thurman red-handed - and he was sentenced last month to three years probation and denied the right vote for four years.

According to reports on the proceedings in the local media in Chester County - a suburban outpost in the Philadelphia area - Thurman asked Frank on his initial trip to the polls if he could vote for his son while he was there. Frank told Thurman that would be illegal.

"How would you know," Thurman had reportedly replied. But Frank recognized the man behind the dark shades when Thurman returned three hours later and claimed to be the son. Frank summoned his father David Frank, the precinct judge, who attempted to stop Thurman to explain the problem that he'd created for himself. Thurman said his wife was waiting in the car so he didn't have time to deal with the situation.

Thurman's lawyer argued without success that the Frank father-son duo had tricked his client into voting twice.

Fetterman has been on a roll in the meantime - having raised substantial amounts of money for a U.S. Senate race that he's the early favorte to win in 2022.

more to come ...