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Adventures in video tracking

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Illinois
YouTube

* Thanks to a commenter, here’s a video of Democratic state House candidate Stephanie Kifowit who was approached by a person identified on his/her YouTube account as “JT Lee.”

Kifowit was asked what she thought about the state income tax hike, and she quickly backed away, mumbling something about how the event was private, or something. She didn’t actually answer the question, but she didn’t look great, either. The video has gone viral, with over 10,000 views as of post time. Watch…

* This one may not go viral, but Republican congressional candidate Jason Plummer’s DCCC video tracker posted a series of videos from the DuQuoin State Fair parade. At about two and a half minutes in, a Plummer person begins to politely and jovially mess with the guy. At one point, though, a person is heard to say “Well, you get scum everywhere, ya know,” and then another person says to the tracker, “They don’t pay you enough.” Have a look…

* Near the end of Part 5 (of 6), the tracker can be heard saying “Good job today, Mr. Plummer. I’m out of here.” He’s then asked by a campaign volunteer if he wants a ride. He politely declines…

Heh.

All of the DCCC’s Plummer tracker videos can be found here. Let me know if you find anything. I have a life and can’t watch any more of them today.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 3:03 pm

Comments

Yep cause those streets are private and stuff…

Figure I will see her at the station at some point, be worth asking her.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 3:15 pm
A few thoughts come to mind. first, i really dont like parades. Two, this Ben kid from the DCCC did a great job and demonstrated great restraint. Third, campaigns need to accept and embrace the tracker. Your candidate will always be tracked from now on, you may as well get friendly with the tracker. Enough with the hostility. Being a tracker is a tough, lonely job that will be part of every campaign going forward. Accept it.

Comment by anon Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 3:53 pm
Surely the producer of that first video got permission to use the theme song from Requiem for a Dream for their video?

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 4:07 pm
Kifowit, who is an alderman from Aurora (and sometimes a substitute teacher) is running against Pat Fee for the 84th State Rep District (Aurora/Naperville). Pat Fee lives in the district. Kifowit does not.

Kifowit has spent the last couple years trying to cozy up to the political mafia of Illinois (including Michael and Lisa Madigan). They, along with Mayor Tom Weisner, helped Kifowit trash her opponents during the Democrat primary with sleaze.

Comment by OpenlineBlog Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 4:17 pm
Actually pretty impressed at how restrained Plummer’s team is with the tracker. A snide comment or two is par for the course, but the overall attitude is level-headed. Not like Liz Warren’s goons in Massachusetts.

I would have thought they’d be so worried about Jason doing something ill-advised that they’d shoot trackers on sight (which I think is legal in those parts).

Comment by Adam Smith Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 4:21 pm
Is that 10,000 unique views, or the same three Republican staffers watching it over and over?

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 5:28 pm
“She didn’t actually answer the question, but she didn’t look great, either.”

“…didn’t look great, either.” Nice shot.

But assuming, from her website, that this is true: “She is a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps”

That couldn’t have been all that easy. Apparently, Rich, you expect folks that run for office to be polished pols like the 4 tops.

Not everybody will be….just sayin’.

Comment by sal-says Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 5:29 pm
==That couldn’t have been all that easy. Apparently, Rich, you expect folks that run for office to be polished pols like the 4 tops.

Not everybody will be….just sayin’. ==

Yeah, because it’d be expecting way too much if we asked a candidate for the Statehouse to have an answer to a straight forward question about the largest income tax increase in Illinois history…

It’s not as though she were blindsided with some obscure issue.

Comment by anon Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 5:42 pm
People don’t have to be professionally polished. Answering a simple question about a huge Illinois issue doesn’t take a whole lot of polish, however. Expecting someone who is running for the state GA to be able to answer such a simple question is not asking too much.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 6:10 pm
When was there a tax increase? Income tax increase?

See …

Sounds/looks Dopey no matter who says/doesn’t answer it.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 7:09 pm
Any candidate for the GA should have a well rehearsed response to that question by this point in the campaign.

On the other hand, maybe she had already answered the tracker a couple of times (on this or other occasions). That’s the problem with these things, they collect many hours of video and put out the 10 seconds where the candidate looks bad.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 8:28 pm
Sal
This isn’t her first rodeo, she has been elected alderman and ran for mayor of Aurora once (lost).

Comment by Oneman Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 9:24 pm
I’m in those Plummer videos way more than I would like. His camera added way more than 10 pounds!

I don’t like trackers. I didn’t like it when Jack! Ryan did it to Obama in 2004, and I like it even less now. Jason has told me that the kid follows him to lunch and often waits outside of his residence. That’s a bit much.

Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Aug 28, 12 @ 11:52 pm
We have dealt with Stephanie Kifowit hundreds of times along with thousands of email exchanges over the years.

The video is an accurate reflection of her personality and conduct toward the public when asked something she doesn’t know or like.

As OneMan said, she’s no rookie campaigner and, as Rich said, any candidate for GA should not hesitate to answer this simple question. If you can’t handle this, then you shouldn’t be running for state rep.

The Madigans are extremely foolish to have backed her, but thanks to the sleazy primary campaign they ran for her, she may have more fellow Democrats rooting against her than even Republicans.

Comment by OpenlineBlog Wednesday, Aug 29, 12 @ 12:51 am
These trackers are really the bottom feeders of society. What a creepy existence stalking people hoping for gotcha moments. Sounds like terrible work.

Comment by Drew Wednesday, Aug 29, 12 @ 9:18 am