From the East Valley Tribune:
Dem snooper stakes out Republican fundraiser
Gary Grado, Tribune
Lights, camera, action! He wasn't exactly a paparazzo, but a Democratic operative made Republican donors uneasy by recording them and their license plates with a video camera at a private fundraiser in Paradise Valley Wednesday.
Templar: Has it come to this: 24-hour stalking of local candidates?
Republicans call it dirty tricks.
Democrats say to get over it.
"This is standard operating procedure," said Emily DeRose, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. "I'm not sure why anyone has a problem with it."
DeRose wouldn't say what the Democrats are going to do with the footage, since that would be discussing strategy.
But DeRose said Republicans do the same thing.
"None of this goes on in my shop," said Sean McCaffrey, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party.
He couldn't vouch for every Republican over all the years, though.
How could the perfectly legal act of photographing people in public be a dirty trick?
"Anything that Democrats do that makes people uncomfortable is dirty tricks," McCaffrey said.
DeRose said names of donors are public record and "we believe the political process should be open."
Some guests at a fundraiser at a Paradise Valley home for Laura Knaperek, candidate for Arizona's 5th Congressional District, were intimidated.
The district, which includes Scottsdale, Tempe, Ahwatukee Foothills, Fountain Hills and part of western Mesa, is represented by Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz.
Knaperek said she got out of her car at the affair and saw a young man with a video camera shooting her.
The man told guests he was David Judd. DeRose wouldn't give any more information on her "employee."
Judd told Knaperek's campaign manager that he was assigned to Knaperek and was recording all the guests.
His camera ticked off a few of the guests, but "nobody was mean to him."
They invited Judd inside for some water, snacks, relief from the heat and even took a shot at getting him to switch sides.
"We told him he can join the Republican Party, the party of the people. We don't go around photographing people," Knaperek said. "He just laughed."
1 comment:
My name is Jim. I am a volunteer for Laura Knaperek and am hosting a Meet & Greet at my house in Ahwatukee this Friday. I got a call from "david" wanting to rsvp. When I asked his last name he said Judd. I asked if he was the person stalking Laura's campaign he said yes. I told him he was not welcome. His phone came up on the caller id as 808-489-1605--hawaii. He has calif. plates. Thus, not only does the democratic party employ gestapo tactics, they don't even have the decency to use local people--they bring in outsiders! and they break the las by not having his car registered where he lives/works--which is AZ.
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