Dirty Tricks

What did your firm do to use the Green Party?
We just made calls encouraging Democrats to vote for the Green Party candidate.

What are some of the other dirty tricks that are used?
This cycle you've seen quite a few. You see Barack Obama's middle name used prominently.

Hussein.
Yes. And obviously the intent of that is to inflame … You've seen recently phone calls to ministers in Iowa threatening their tax-exempt status if they actively campaign.

I think those were fliers or letters.
Anyway, the intent was the same. That's designed to get someone to back off—to intimidate. One of the most notorious instances was in South Carolina in 2000, having to do with Sen. McCain. That was the whisper campaign and fliers on the windshields that Sen. McCain had fathered an illegitimate African-American child.

Have you heard about the bogus Romney Christmas card in South Carolina this year?
That was the last one I was going to get to. It had in it polygamy [a practice once associated with the Mormon church but long ago renounced by church leaders]. Again, probably those are targeted at evangelical voters in South Carolina, and it's geared toward triggering a bigoted reaction.

How hard is it to find out who is behind an effort like that? Obviously these Christmas cards or letters or fliers don't have a return address. Is it possible to find out who is behind these actions?
It depends on what kind of resources you're going to throw at it. It's probably pretty tough, because it's probably first-class mail, so it can't be tracked that way. They're probably dumped off in a mailbox in some rural area, so it's hard to figure out [the place of origin]. Maybe some guy drove a hundred miles to dump it in a mailbox that's not near the place he generally works. Nowhere are you going to find a disclosure on anyone's campaign report that says "Romney-polygamy-bigotry mail piece." It's just not going to show up that way.