Vote Recount Judge a Gore Donor CNSNews.com Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 The head of a Washington legal group says the federal judge who ruled against a request to suspend the hand counting of ballots in Democrat-dominated Florida counties should have recused himself from the case because of a lengthy history of campaign contributions to Democrats, including Bill Clinton and Al Gore. National Legal and Policy Center President Peter Flaherty said a compilation of Federal Election Commission records by the NLPC shows that U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks has given more than $19,000 to an array of Democrat candidates for federal office, including $1,000 to Clinton's 1996 re-election effort. "Judges must adhere to high standards of ethics and integrity, even more so when the judge is required to effectively pick the next president of the United States," said Flaherty. "This judge failed to meet these standards." According to the FEC data collected by Flaherty's group and verified by a crosscheck of contribution records, Middlebrooks donated $19,480 to Democrat candidates and committees between 1979 and 1996. The FEC data also show Middlebrooks made a $250 contribution to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1996, which Flaherty noted "occurred the year before the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed his appointment by Bill Clinton to the federal bench in 1997." Middlebrooks was the judge who rejected Republican arguments Monday that the hand counting of ballots in four Republican-minority Florida counties was a violation of the Constitution because it did not treat all Florida counties and their voters equally. The hand counts in question amounted to the third tally of ballots in those areas, where Vice President Al Gore won decisive victories in the Nov. 7 election. The Bush campaign is reportedly planning an appeal of Middlebrooks' Monday decision.
