Terry Cowgill

Johnson vs Murphy; Life of the Tracker

October 13, 2006 on 8:02 pm | In Main, State |

There was an amusing piece in yesterday’s L.A. Times about a relatively new phenomenon in high-profile political campaigns. Sam Howe Verhovek wrote a nifty profile of a “tracker” — one of those young 20-something campaign workers who trails the opponent’s campaign with a video camera hoping for some kind of dreadful gaff that will serve as fodder for an attack ad.

But more importantly, such footage can be uploaded almost immediately to Youtube or one of the other websites that allows almost anyone with a computer to post video footage that can be viewed by anyone else with a computer. Call it the hunt for a “Macaca Moment,” but it has changed the face of political campaigning in this country.

On a far more important political note, the only scheduled debate of Connecticut’s 5th district Congressional race is set for tomorrow, Oct. 14, at 3 p.m. on the campus of Central Connecticut State University. The Murphy campaign tells me it will be televised on the Connecticut Network (CTN), which is the Nutmeg State’s local equivalent of C-SPAN. That’s channel 99 on Comcast.

But I can’t find any indication on the CTN program schedule that it will be televised. In fact, the schedule lists a debate between two other Connecticut Congressional candidates during that same time slot. What gives? I’ll ask around.