Last Thursday, February 1st, a Democrat operative and ex-president of the Atlantic City council got arrested on charges of allegedly orchestrating a mail-in ballot fraud scheme in the New Jersey city.
Craig Callaway, the accused individual, was employed by the Jeff Van Drew reelection campaign at the time. Van Drew, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party in 2020, denied any involvement or knowledge of the operation.
As reported by the New Jersey Monitor:
U.S. Attorneys accused Callaway and other unnamed subordinates of paying Atlantic City residents between $30 and $50 to act as authorized messengers and request mail-in ballots for voters whom they had never met. Prosecutors allege that those ballots were later cast without the actual voters’ knowledge.
The charges appear to stem from work Callaway did for Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s 2022 reelection campaign. There’s no indication Van Drew (R-02) knew about the alleged scheme.
According to reports, Rep. Van Drew paid Callaway’s consulting firm $65,500 for “strategic consulting.” Nearly one-third of that amount, totaling $25,000, was paid in October, shortly before the 2022 election. Van Drew had previously paid Callaway’s firm $110,000 during his 2020 reelection campaign.
Callaway could potentially face up to