Carey Could Be Barred From an Election Rerun

A court-appointed officer who last month invalidated Teamsters President Ron Carey’s 1996 election said Thursday that she is examining new evidence that could disqualify Carey from an election rerun.

Barbara Zack Quindel, who oversaw the election in which Carey narrowly defeated James P. Hoffa, said that since she called for a new election Aug. 22, she received information from the Hoffa camp and the U.S. attorney’s office in New York that could make new witnesses available to her.

“I would expect to be interviewing these witnesses imminently and evaluating any supplemental evidence that may bear on the issue of disqualification,” she said in a letter dated Thursday to the court-appointed officer in charge of hearing appeals on the union’s election.

Carey’s campaign finances are also being investigated by a New York grand jury and Manhattan U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White, whose office, according to published reports, is focusing on ties to the Democratic National Committee and President Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign.

In calling for a new election last month, Quindel issued a 134-page summary of her eight-month investigation that detailed an illegal campaign fund-raising scheme that she said provided the cash that may have given Carey his slim margin of victory.

Quindel refused to disqualify Carey from running in the new election as Hoffa had asked, saying that there was no evidence that Carey or members of his slate knew of the scheme. But she said “important questions remained unanswered” and left open the possibility of disqualifying Carey if new evidence emerges.

In Thursday’s letter to Election Appeals Master Kenneth Conboy, Quindel said she did not expect to complete her review of the new evidence in time for a hearing Monday on several appeals filed by the Hoffa campaign.

“In the interest of efficiency and the orderly presentation of this matter, I would request that the portion of the appeal relating to the disqualification issue be held in abeyance while the supplemental investigation takes place,” she said.

Quindel, a Milwaukee labor lawyer who earlier this month announced that she would resign her court-appointed election officer post as soon as a plan for a new election is approved, also asked Conboy to postpone for two days the appeals hearing on several other matters raised by the Hoffa campaign.

U.S. District Judge David Edelstein, who appointed Quindel in his capacity as overseer of a 1989 settlement of federal racketeering charges against the union, could decide on a rerun election plan as early as Sept. 19.

It was unclear whether Quindel would decide about Carey before she leaves her post or if the decision would be left to her successor if her review of the new evidence is not completed by the time Edelstein approves a new election plan.

Hoffa, 56, whose father, James R. Hoffa, led the union in the 1950s and 1960s, has long accused Quindel of favoring Carey, and has suggested former President Jimmy Carter as a replacement.

Carey spokesman John Bell said there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Carey, 61, that should bar him as a candidate and urged that the rerun election be held as soon as possible.