It's common, and understandable, that candidates will often send staffers to videotape or record their opponents' speeches. But we seem to have an embarrassing new low in the Illinois senate race -- one that might even amount to stalking.
Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for the open seat and his opponent is Republican Jack Ryan. For the last ten days, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Ryan has had a campaign staffer, Justin Warfel, follow Obama with a video camera all day.
And I mean, all day.
Not only does he record Obama's public appearances, he tails Obama in his car; he follows him into restrooms; he stays a couple feet behind him when he's walking in public; he waits outside his office and pesters his secretary. And he heckles Obama at public appearances.
The Chicago Sun-Times asked Ryan's campaign manager if this was appropriate ...
But Jason Miller, Ryan's campaign manager, insisted Obama's public movements are fair game and the point is to make sure Obama doesn't contradict himself with his public statements.
"If he's having a phone conversation, then Justin is not trying to tap into the conversation or record what he is saying or something like that," Miller said. "He's monitoring because you never know when ... a reporter comes up and starts asking questions."
The State's Republican Senate Minority Leader disagreed. "I don't care if you're in public life or who you are," Frank Watson (R-Greenville) told the Sun-Times. "You deserve your space, your privacy. I don't think it's appropriate."
Well, give credit to Ryan for one thing: apparently the goal is to catch Obama in actual contradictions.
Your garden-variety Republican would just make some shit up.
Actually, this should be pretty good for Obama. He just needs to make a point of stating at every campaign stop or appearance "Jack Ryan's been stalking me, having me followed, night and day for the last couple of weeks. I really don't know if Ryan is a little crazy or if he's actually dangerous. Whichever it is, this kind of behavior is pretty bizarre." Keep repeating those words - "crazy", "dangerous" and "bizarre". People will start to get the message pretty quickly that Ryan is just a creepy guy who shouldn't be in office.
UPDATE: (5/22/04) The Ryan campaign, it seems, has decided to cut its losses.
Jason Miller, campaign manager for Illinois Republican senate candidate Jack Ryan, defended the actions of the videographer/stalker his campaign sicced on opponent Barack Obama in quotes given to the Chicago Sun-Times.
But the campaign has now decided to apologize, according to this late report, and call off the dogs, or rather the dog.
"I have no reason to doubt [Obama's] word and I offer an apology on behalf of the campaign," said Communications Director Bill Pascoe, according to late reports.
A smart move by Jack Ryan after this creepy stalking stunt was outed all over the press and TV news. I guess this just once more amounted to "one bad apple" in Ryan's campaign staff unless you are a little cynical like me.
