In 2006 Virginia Senator George Allen reacted to a guy from the Democratic campaign that was following him around with a video camera by calling him a name (slur) that I had never heard before. The resulting storm sunk his reelection.
George Allen introduces Macaca
George Allen introduces Macaca
Since that happened just about every campaign in the country has employed people to follow around the other candidate with a video camera hoping to come up with a similar pot of gold. The TL reports that the Paul Kanjorski camp paid a guy $10,000 to follow around Lou Barletta hoping to catch Mayor Lou saying something stupid.
The videographer, identified as Joe Van Wie of Agapic Films of Scranton, was observed taping Barletta at campaign rallies and fundraisers...Van Wie may have been able to track Barletta because he signed up to be a Barletta campaign volunteer.
This has become an common campaign tactic so there was no need for subterfuge. If a candidate is speaking at a public event it's fair game to videotape it. Chris Carney's camp also had a videographer following around Chris Hackett.
Sights on Pennsylvania has much more about how this affected the Barletta campaign even to the point of refusing to give me Lou's schedule because they didn't want to give a heads up to the video guy. Bad move. I've had various candidates tell me that people showed up at an event because they read it on my blog. The video guy would have found him anyway.
Chris Hackett is the most dishonest man I have ever come across. He had the nerve to say, he wouldn’t “stoop to such practices.” He said this knowing full well it is a lie. He had his people at four of Congressman Carney's town hall meetings with Cameras. I know because I was there. He had someone at Wayne County, Sullivan County, Snyder County, and 2 people at Lycoming County. Maybe he was just trying to get some footage for the family album. He can try to deny it if he likes but I have pictures of his camera guys at all the locations.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Barletta do something similar?
ReplyDeleteOh right:
http://dannybauder.blogspot.com/2008/06/this-does-not-macaca-make.html
Danny,
ReplyDeleteYou know darn well that person that taped Kanjorski was an concerned citizen who had a cousin in Iraq. That is the reason he approached Kanjorski. There is no evidence of payment by Barletta as there was with Kanjorski. There was no evidence of deceiving the campaign by signing up as a volunteer, stating you wanted a sign in your yard, stating you would show up election day, and wearing a Lou button while taping.
You can't even compare the two events. The taping isn't what made the story. The volunteer card is what peaked media interest.
"Piqued."
ReplyDeleteThe media's interest was "piqued."