Reforming the Culture of Washington One Stolen E-mail List At a Time
Posted by Adam Graham in : Idaho Conservative, TheImagine if you would a police officer pulling over a teenager behind the wheel of Lamborgini. The officer asks what amounts to little more than a rhetorical question. “Son, is this your car?”
“No,” replies the boy. “but the owner left the keys in the ignition, and the door unlocked. And I have a really important race to get to. The future of the world hangs on it. I’m going to beat this evil guy in the Boise 200 and restore honesty and ethics to the circuit.”
The officer wouldn’t be impressed. And we shouldn’t be either with similar pronouncements coming from the Larry Grant Congressional campaign this evening.
Idaho 1st Congressional District United Party Candidate Andy Hedden-Nicely issued the following press relesase tonight:
Julie Fanselow of the Grant campaign admitted today that they took advantage of an error and used a Hedden-Nicely email list without permission to distribute a one-sided editorial to Hedden-Nicely supporters. “I never expected this from Grant,” said Hedden-Nicely.
According to Christopher Hansen, a supporter and recognized email distribution professional, “It appears to me (the Grant Campaign) used an unethical method to get this email list.”
The Hedden-Nicely campaign posted an e-mail allegedly from Julie Fanselow, which is gravely disappointing. I’ve found Julie at times to be on the far left of American politics and sometimes shrill in her attacks on good people. But I’ve never thought anything negative of her as a person. This e-mail serves as a warning of what happens when winning becomes everything. The e-mail reads:
Dear Andy,
Here’s what happened: Your campaign sent out a recent email with a long
list of its recipients visible. Someone forgot to use the “BCC” function.It appears this election will be won by a very small percentage. We
believe – as most Idahoans and Americans do – that it is critical we stem
the tide of conservative fundamentalist control of our country. Because
there is so much at stake in this election, we took the opportunity to forward the Lewiston Tribune editorial since many people around the state have not seen it.Sincerely,
Julie Fanselow
Grant for Congress
As campaign blogger, Julie Fanselow said, “We” (i.e. the Grant campaign) “took the opportunity” to steal the Hedden-Nicely campaign list. If Julie is to be believed, this is not the act of one individual, but of an entire campaign.
Julie’s letter is not so much an apology as an explanation. There’s no, “We’re sorry, we messed up” in Julie’s e-mail. Rather the thrust of the message is “Here’s an explanation of how we got your e-mail list, stupid. Next time use BCC.”
Larry Grant has said he wants to “reform the culture of Washington.” With what? The ends justify the means logic portrayed in Julie Fanselow’s e-mail?
At the same time, the Grant campaign has been attacking Bill Sali over complaints filed against Club for Growth which at worstt could be termed “technocratic” issues with the obscurity of election laws (mixing money from 527s and PACs. I know this shows grave corruption of our Republic.) At the same time, Idaho Democrats have attacked our Congressional delegation over the Mark Foley scandal. According to them, Butch Otter as a low level Assistant Majority Whip “may have had knowledge” of the Foley scandal, an allegation they base on complete speculation. Chairman RICHARD Stalling (Don’t call him Dick unless you want a tirade. I know Dick is a common nickname for Richard, but we don’t go there here.)
We need vigorous new blood — honorable men and women — to save this country from the quagmire Congress has become. Idaho voters can play a leading part by sending Jim Hansen and Larry Grant to Washington. Together, we can put America back on the right track.
I guess if your sense of honor allows the theft of e-mail lists to save the world from fundamentalists, then sure that’s what we need in Washington.
Bill Sali for his part has noted it and praised Hedden-Nicely for coming forward with the information but taken issue with his grauitious swipe at Sali for “self-serving politics.” Sali writes:
There is nothing self-serving about smaller government, lower taxes, a strong national defense and traditional family values. There’s nothing self-serving about defending our flag and calling for English to be our official language.
Indeed, it can be said that Bill Sali has stood for conservatism when the path of least resistance is a go-along-to-get-along right-centrism. Instead, Sali has stood for conservatism and has been walking through this campaign with a big bullseye on his back and every media hack from Dan Popkey on down taking aim. Self-serving politics would be to stand right in the middle. Sali then concludes his note with this:
By the way, Andy, would you mind forwarding my news release to your supporters so they will know I said all of this?”
Message to the Grant Campaign: This is how you forward something to someone else’s mailing list.
Comment by Bubblehead [Member]
So explain again how Mr. Sali plans to have a strong national defense with lower taxes, all while balancing the budget? A strong defense costs money. I’d be interested in Mr. Sali coming up with a specific dollar amount he’d cut from each department in order to balance the budget — specific programs he’d cut would be even better. He’s said he doesn’t like funding Medicare; maybe he’ll cut Medicare for military retirees?
Re: the rest of your post, I think you’ll have to admit that your use of the word “stealing” is just a tad disingenuous.
Comment by Adam Graham [Member]
I’ve got a radio Interview that Sali did, that I’m actually going to post where he explains some of what he thinks about health care.
But you’re trying to distract from the point, Larry Grant stole Hedden-Nicely’s e-mail list and the left is grautiously trying to attack Sali for it.
If you don’t call it stealing what do you call it? Do you think it’s ethical or right because you’re backing Larry Grant?
Comment by Bubblehead [Member]
I suppose it could best be described as “taking advantage of the inexperience of a staffer for a fringe candidate” — not quite a crime. I mean, c’mon, everyone knows you need to use BCC: when sending an E-mail to a large group. Personally, I like the concept of having a Congressman whose staff knows how to use the ‘net (as opposed to Mr. Sali’s webmaster, who posted the “questioning” Support for Israel statement — which, to be honest, was pretty good, if you ignore the inappropriate question marks.)
I notice Larry addressed the issue at Grassroots For Grant, and invited comments. So when do you think Mr. Sali is going to have some sort of interactive feature on his campaign website?
Comment by Adam Graham [Member]
Oh, “taking advantage of.” Good new speak. I’d rather have someone uses the Internet responsibly. I think the Internet technology is evolving and that it evolves, candidates are going to find better ways to take advantage of it. I don’t work for the campaign, so I can’t speak to their future plans. But hopefully, they’ll improve over time. 6-8 years ago, most campaigns didn’t have a website.