The Democrat legal strategy expands

As I continue to look into this alarming new trend of Indiana Democrats attempting to defeat Mitch Daniels in the courts vs. the ballot box I found an interesting article in the Anderson Herald-Bulletin. The article is about the politically-motivated lawsuit filed by Democrat state party operative Shaw Friedman:

Roob [FSSA Director] called the lawsuit “politically motivated and baseless” early in the week but failed to give an explanation for his comments.

In an e-mail, Auld said, “We aren’t going to comment on the ‘baseless’ nature of the case because legal is still working on this.”

John Cardwell, a senior advocate and critic of the modernized welfare system, said Roob once falsely accused him of being politically and financially motivated to stop the rollout.

Roob previously accused Cardwell of working in the interest of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees, a union that represented state welfare caseworkers, Cardwell said. Roob’s argument was that AFSCME stood to lose millions of dollars in union dues due to privatization.

(Read more after the leap)

Cardwell said Roob spread the rumors that he knew to be untrue.

“He didn’t make the assumption (I worked for them). He made the accusation. My only view is this that Mitch Roob clearly understood that I didn’t work with AFSCME. I think Mitch Roob clearly understood that Shaw and his father did not have a fiduciary interest in the property.”

Friedman said his family is selling the property in question on Friday and has no interest in keeping FSSA as clients.

“I wasn’t aware that they were selling the building to somebody else, but at this point, it’s still in his name,” Auld said Wednesday.

“Mitch Roob has done this thing, whether it’s Shaw or me or welfare clients that have has the temerity to speak up. Mitch does this thing where he has private talks with some little barb to discredit them,” Cardwell said.

“That’s just inappropriate behavior,” Cardwell added.

I got very interested in this Cardwell guy after he came to the defense of Friedman. Is he a union lackey?

From what I could find from Google it looks like Cardwell heads the Generations Project, some sort of group concerned about senior issues. He’s partnered with unions and the Chairman of the Generations Project board is Elmer Blankenship, former Assistant Director of UAW Region #3. Blankenship is also the President of the Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans, a union front-group for retirees.

Another member of his board, Michelle Niemier, is head of United Senior Action and was involved with the lawsuit seeking to bar Indiana’s Voter ID law.

It’s clear Cardwell is a key candidate for inclusion in our Democrat lawsuit to defeat Mitch cabal.

Stay tuned for more.