No, this is not the worst political dirty trick (see below) but it is dirty — and the guy behind it is a senior campaign adviser to both Senator Scott Brown and Governor Mitt Romney. It will be interesting to see if Senator Brown and/or Governor Romney ‘look the other way’ or if they do something in response to this. If they ‘look the other way,’ they better not complain later when something dirty is done to them. It can’t be a one way street…
One other thing…this is a chance for either or both to show leadership and to send a message that they want clean campaigns.
And let me repeat, this is not the dirtiest political trick but it is slimy and part of that slippery slope.
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Brown adviser admits to running Twitter account mocking Democratic opponent
By Justin Sink – 08/24/11 06:14 PM ET
Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior campaign adviser to both Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has admitted he’s behind a Twitter feed that has been mocking Democratic Senate candidate Alan Khazei.
The “CrazyKhazei” Twitter account is a parody of Khazei’s inner thoughts, in a vein similar to that of the “MayorEmanuel” account, an oft-profane mockery of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel during his campaign for that office.
For example, one “CrazyKhazei” tweet reads: “I want to thank my charity, Be the Change, for subsidizing my Senate campaign by paying me $10k a month. Wink.” And the bio of the account reads: “I’m a community organizer. I got crushed by Martha Coakley in the 2009 US Senate primary. I’m running because we need more Democrats in the MA delegation.”
In an email to The Boston Globe, Fehrnstrom admitted he was behind the tweets, but didn’t apologize for them….
…The Khazei campaign reacted angrily to the allegations, calling on Brown to denounce the tactics, close the Twitter account and apologize.
“Instead of launching anonymous personal attacks against Alan Khazei, Senator Scott Brown and his team should focus their time and energy on growing our economy and putting Massachusetts citizens back to work,” Khazei spokeswoman Emily Cherniack said.
In addition to Fehrnstrom, Rob Willington, another Brown staffer, has been implicated in the “CrazyKhazei” scandal, according to the Globe. WHOIS domain-name records show that Willington registered CrazyKhazei.com in January.
As of press time, Fehrnstrom had not tweeted again from his personal account. The Brown campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Brown’s seat is a top Democratic target this cycle, and Khazei is one of several Democrats running for it.
The Democratic
