Sean Belk
Staff Writer
They appear out of nowhere, ready to capture that one offensive comment, inaccuracy, gaffe or slip-up that, in some cases, may change the outcome of an election.
They’re called political trackers, and they have become commonplace in high-profile political races over the past decade, according to experts. However, some reports show that such trackers are also increasingly becoming more aggressive and have been the subject of controversies that have sometimes swayed public perceptions and election results.
Typically, a political tracker’s job is to shadow an opposing candidate during public-speaking events in order to video- or audio-record off-the-cuff comments that may be later used against a particular candidate in political ads or Internet videos. Either political parties or the candidates themselves can use political trackers, and sometimes candidates send trackers to follow the trackers.
“It’s been a standard procedure for definitely over six years and probably longer than that,” said Ian Patton, a political consultant for the past 15 years and a former staff member of the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, who represented California’s 37th congressional district.
An incident most commonly associated with political trackers is when George Allen, a former United States Senator for Virginia, was speaking during his re-election campaign in 2006 and called an Indian-American tracker for the opposing campaign a “macaca,” considered a racist epithet used in the South, meaning “monkey.” Although the candidate apologized and said he meant to say something else, Allen ended up losing the campaign, which reports speculated was due to the incident.
Another incident occurred most recently, when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was secretly recorded during a fundraiser saying that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay income tax, a statement he later retracted.
In the case of Gary DeLong taking a cell phone from political tracker Kelsey Hewlett on Oct. 5, some have speculated that his reaction might have been due to the fact that she had been following him for weeks.
Patton said, however, that the tracker was in complete compliance with the law and was conducting a standard operating procedure for her job. “If somebody is actually being a problem, you can go get a restraining order, but I understand, as far as I know, [DeLong] didn’t do that,” Patton said. “So there hasn’t really been any suggestion that she wasn’t doing anything other than the standard tracking procedure.”
Patton further said DeLong’s reaction was odd since trackers are the norm today. “It was bizarre that he freaked out because it’s such a common thing these days,” he said. “It happens all the time, especially for higher-profile races. At every public event, they’re going to have someone recording the words so that in case you say something stupid they can use it against you ! you can’t stop people from doing that.”
Although phone calls to Hewlett were not returned, Tenoch Flores, spokesperson for the California Democratic Party said the paid job is not difficult. “It’s pretty straightforward,” he said. “You go to events where the opposing candidate is speaking, and you get a camera and record what they’re saying. Most campaigns are used to that and accept trackers as a part of campaigning ! the DeLong campaign is apparently not ready for prime time.”
However, DeLong is not alone in his feeling of being harassed by a political tracker. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reports that Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party candidate for governor, accused GOP trackers of “harassment” for following him so closely during a race in 2010. Republicans scoffed at the accusation.
Still, Patton said video recording in public is legal and doesn’t require permission, adding that, in today’s technologically advanced society, it should be expected, especially in such a high-profile political race. “Every year the saturation of people with cell-phone cameras gets to 100 percent,” he said. “In this day and age, how can you expect to not be recorded?”
