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Pike campaign chief called out for online comments

Democrat Doug Pike’s campaign manager has been taken to task by Daily Kos for stealthily making “disparaging remarks” about Pike’s primary opponent on the liberal blog.

In a post Wednesday evening, a Daily Kos blogger revealed that Andrew Eldredge-Martin had been utilizing what’s called a “sockpuppet account”—used to shield the writer’s identity—to criticize Manan Trivedi, who is running against Pike in the 6th Congressional District. The comments were made in response to posts on the Swing State Project, a Daily Kos-affiliated site, where Eldredge-Martin identified himself as Pike’s campaign manager in some comments, but didn’t do so in comments that were critical of Trivedi.

It is not unusual for campaign operatives to troll the blogosphere and post comments beneficial to their candidates from behind the shield of anonymity. But as a central pipeline for building grassroots and fundraising support among progressives, Daily Kos is particularly adamant when it comes to frowning upon the practice and calling out transgressors. Eldredge-Martin has since been banned from commenting on the site.

“Needless to say, this kind of behavior is completely unacceptable,” the Daily Kos blogger wrote. “If campaign officials have something to say about the very race they’re working on, then it is mandatory that they speak out in their own voice. Pretending to be an impartial observer, especially for the purposes of spreading negative information about opponents, is a complete violation of our trust. For the most senior official, a campaign manager, to do so is especially unacceptable.”

Reached by phone Wednesday night, Eldredge-Martin did not deny anything, but declined to comment on the record.

In one Sept. 16 comment as “pa_watcher,” shortly after Trivedi entered the race, Eldredge-Martin wrote that “Pike is still the heavy favorite.” In another comment the same day and on the same post, this time as “ProgressiveSEPA,” Eldredge-Martin wrote: “I met Trivedi at an event near Reading (Berks County) and he seemed pretty naive about what it took to run a strong campaign.”

Added the Daily Kos blogger: “Candidates regularly come here seeking our support, our volunteer hours, and our money. These are serious things to ask for, and if you’re going to ask for them, we expect nothing but total scrupulousness.”

share001btn Pike campaign chief called out for online comments

September 30, 2009 at 11:30 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

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  1. Pike campaign chief called out for online comments… | GrassrootsPA

    Sep 30th, 2009

    [...] Pike campaign chief called out for online comments… [...]

  2. What?

    Oct 1st, 2009

    Pike did not deny anything? Or was it the campaign manager?

  3. Dan Hirschhorn

    Oct 1st, 2009

    Copied a word in the wrong place. Apologies.

    It was Eldridge-Martin who I spoke to.

    Dan

  4. aajane

    Oct 1st, 2009

    For those not familiar with sock puppetry, it allows one person to appear as two people at the same time. Not commenting on the specifics of this case, but what can happen is the “real username” posts a comment supporting a comment and the “sock puppet” username posts a comment agreeing. Multiple sock puppet accounts allows one person to appear as a crowd. It is also considered bad form for a paid campaign official to post anonymous comments trashing their opponent.

    Just about everyone has tracking software on their blogs these days and there are fairly easy ways to see if someone is posting multiple comments from the same device, especially if they comments are posted in a short period of time. Even software that only provides a partial IP address makes multiple comments from that IP stand out.

    I’ve always liked Drew and found the Kos story, and this one, distressing.

  5. Flynn6th

    Oct 1st, 2009

    Blog-gate!

    Have we found the 6th District’s new G. Gordon Liddy??

    Nixon new about Watergate… Do you think Pike knows about Blog-gate??

  6. contactsport

    Oct 1st, 2009

    This shows just how worried Pike is about the race-Allowing his campaign to resort to these tactics shows an ethical problem with the campaign and it reflects badly on the candidate. Pike should denounce these actions.
    He also should be honest about the money his campaign has raised and how much he has personally put into the campaign to inflate the numbers and the strength of his support.

  7. Flynn6th

    Oct 1st, 2009

    Andrew Eldridge-Martin just emailed me, said I spelled “knew” wrong. Sorry about that.

  8. forthe6th

    Oct 1st, 2009

    What I find funny is that one of his comments was: “I met Trivedi at an event near Reading (Berks County) and he seemed pretty naive about what it took to run a strong campaign.” and then he gets caught with this foolishness. The irony.

    Trivedi’s campaign raised 110k in 23 days whereas the Pike campaign raised 130k in 8 months. Of course they are scared…they thought they had already bought the election.

  9. strat

    Oct 2nd, 2009

    Those facts are amazing! Thank you forthe6th. The fact that someone with so much institutional support can only raise 130k in 3 months even when using these tactics is just astounding.

    We need to keep these tactics out of politics and I’m glad someone is uncovering it!

    I’m leaning more and more towards Mr. Trivedi every day!

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