getting your money's worth

What a shocker.  

Apparently my earlier understanding was incomplete.  I was under the impression that various Democratic Party-aligned groups and a huge corrupt law firm spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2004 to boot Nader off the ballot and then, once accomplished, in an unprecedented move, went after him and his running mate to recover the court costs in removing him from the ballot, totaling more than $160,000, and going so far as to attempt to attach one of Nader's personal accounts in the District of Columbia.  In reality,this was only part of the story, and, incredibly, the cleanest.   It turns out through the payment of my (meager) taxes, I actually subsidized these corrupt and anti-democratic efforts because state workers were illegally working "all day long" during the 2004 campaign to block Nader's ballot access by invalidating signatures and the like, i.e., being paid by the state to perform work for a campaign, or, in other words, they made a huge in-kind contribution to the pathetic Kerry-Edwards campaign* that was supported financially by the taxes of all Pennsylvanians.  Lovely.  

I hasten to add that Pennsylvania maintains one of the most onerous and indefensibly exclusive ballot access laws in the country, requiring anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 signatures (depending on the year) in order to be placed on the ballot--that is, only if you're a minor candidate.   It goes without saying that the two major political parties don't face a similar hurdle.  

Relevant passage from the Post-Gazette:

Back in the courtroom, witnesses described the election work being done at state expense between 2004 and 2006.

The work included preparing challenges to 2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader's nominating petitions, they testified yesterday in Dauphin County Common Pleas Court.

The Nader effort was "massive and completely consuming," testified Melissa Lewis, who worked in Mr. Veon's office and now is caucus director of the Allegheny County delegation. "That's what we did all day long."

*I hope history will record that not only was the Kerry-Edwards juggernaut unable to win fair and square, but it's now clear it was unable to win despite cheating and effectively disenfranchising voters.  Of course, taints like this just undermine Democrats when they begin to, self-interestedly, bleat about voter suppression efforts.  There are no doubt credible allegations of vile voter suppression efforts being perpetrated by the Republicans and their ilk, but when Democrats so brazenly conspire with others to prevent voters from having a choice, well, their credibility to make voter suppression complaints goes out the window.