Scouts and Trackers

Colorado’s frontier history produced famous scouts who made early civilization a bit safer.  Today’s political trackers make our politics a little less civilized.

Kurtis Lee of the Denver Post reports on the National Republican Congressional Committee hiring young operatives with a hand-held camera to track the candidates in the Democrats’ two most winnable districts – Sal Pace in the third district and Joe Miklosi in the sixth... 

Having seen the impact in the 2006 Virginia senate race (“Macaca Moment”), trackers are now part of the normal campaign background in high-profile, targeted races.

“‘It’s almost a standard operational procedure and comes to be expected that with highly targeted races, both Republicans and Democrats are going to hire individuals to videotape the every move of a rival candidate,’ said political analyst Floyd Ciruli.

Ciruli said that with this year’s congressional races – where some have the potential to be close contests – catching a candidate in an unscripted moment can become a talking point all the way up until Election Day in November.

‘With social media these days, a sound clip can reach millions instantaneously,’ said Ciruli, who calls tracking an interactive form of opposition research.”