Former North Coast congressman jailed in Ohio after protesting

Associated Press   10 December 2004

UKIAH, Calif. - Former U.S. U.S. Rep. Dan Hamburg was jailed after he attempted to deliver a letter about election irregularities to the Ohio secretary of state.

Hamburg and his wife, Carrie, spent Wednesday night in a Columbus, Ohio, jail after they refused to leave a coffee shop in a building that houses the offices of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

The couple, who live near Ukiah, were released Thursday, said Hamburg, who served one term in Congress as a Democrat and later ran for governor of California as the Green Party candidate.

The couple arrived in Columbus a week ago to demand a recount of ballots from the Nov. 2 election in Ohio, where allegations of fraud and election irregularities have circulated since President Bush secured a second term after winning that state.

The Hamburgs joined a group that went to Columbus to protest the vote count by Blackwell, who was Ohio chairman for the Bush campaign.

On Monday, Hamburg attempted to deliver a letter to Blackwell demanding that he recuse himself from the vote count, but was blocked from getting off at his floor by state troopers, Hamburg said.

On Wednesday, Hamburg said he and his wife returned with a 14-page letter issued by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee after a hearing on the Ohio vote count this week in Washington.

After the Hamburgs were turned back at the lobby, they went to the coffee shop, where security guards asked them to leave the building. When they refused, they were arrested on suspicion of trespassing, Hamburg said.

Hamburg and his wife spent a night in the Franklin County Correction Center and were released a few hours apart Thursday morning after pleading guilty to misdemeanor public disturbance charges.