Dvorak Expects Charging Decision Soon In Obama Petition-Forging Scandal

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak tells The South Bend Tribune he expects to announce a charging decision soon in his office's ongoing investigation of how the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama forged hundreds of signatures on Obama's ballot petitions filed in the 2nd congressional district so that his name could be placed on the ballot for the Indiana primary election. Indiana's primary was one of the hardest fought and closest of contests between Hillary Clinton and Obama during the 2008 nominating process. Clinton narrowly defeated Obama in the Indiana primary, but Obama won a significant amount of delegates that proved critical in helping him narrowly defeat Clinton for the nomination. Dvorak has conducted the investigation in cooperation with the Indiana State Police in spite of the fact that he was one of the victims who had his name forged on the Obama petitions. No cries for a special prosecutor as there was in Charlie White's case because White was the Hamilton Co. GOP Chairman and the county's prosecutor, Sonia Leerkamp, was also a Republican. From The Tribune:

County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak said Thursday that the investigation into the presence of fake signatures on ballot petitions in St. Joseph County remains ongoing but that he expects a charging soon.

Dvorak said he and a deputy met with state police investigators Thursday, "and I can't divulge any specifics, but I can say there are a few more things that need to be completed." He added that he expects a charging decision in the case "very soon."

"That does not mean we are charging anyone," he said, "but we will be making a charging decision very soon."

A forensic handwriting expert hired by the Tribune as part of its investigation of the petition-forging scandal linked the handwriting of Dustin Blythe, a former Democratic elections worker in the St. Joseph County voter registration office, to some of the forged signatures. State Sen. John Broden, who took over as the county Democratic chairman after his predecessor, Butch Morgan, was blamed for the scandal and forced to resign, told The Tribune that Blythe has left the voter registration office to "pursue other opportunities."

Keep in mind that the investigation is being conducted by the Indiana State Police, which is under the control of Gov. Mitch Daniels, whose administration is facing a public corruption scandal of its own making involving the awarding of a sweetheart, exclusive real estate broker's agreement with one of Daniels' cronies, John Bales, who has been indicted by the Democratic-appointed U.S. Attorney in South Bend, along with one of Bales' business associates and Indianapolis attorney Paul Page, in connection with the awarding of a lease by the state's Department of Child Services for an Elkhart building co-owned by Page and former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi. Some wonder if a behind-the-scenes deal won't be cut to minimize collateral damage in the competing investigations to the Daniels administration and the Obama campaign, respectively. We shall see.