Posted on 01/21/2004 9:44:09 PM PST by RWR8189
Tactics include prank calls to voters, planted questions, vandalism
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The nervous young man with the bowl haircut stood up at the YWCA and asked Sen. John Edwards if he had "scammed the system" during his law firm days to avoid paying Medicare taxes for his employees.
The question was so elaborately framed and so detailed that it appeared to have been scripted well in advance of the town hall meeting. Looking directly at the young man, Edwards asked which campaign he was working for and who had sent him.
As the Democratic candidates for president stump across New Hampshire, they have encountered a cast of characters that pop up daily to ask embarrassing questions in front of potential supporters.
But in the black bag of campaign tricks, planted questions are among the mildest forms of shenanigans encountered here. With so many candidates in competition to win the nation's first primary, the high jinks range from the mundane to the menacing, and are likely to intensify over the next week.
So far, the New Hampshire attorney general is investigating phone calls made to independent voters incorrectly telling them that they are not eligible to vote in the Jan. 27 primary. At the New Hampshire headquarters for Howard Dean, someone plastered Confederate flag stickers on the cars in the parking lot. And staffers of Sen. Joseph Lieberman on Monday tore down campaign signs belonging to retired Gen. Wesley Clark near the Manchester Airport.
Prank caller
"We've witnessed tactics here that I think are going to make it really challenging to come together behind the eventual nominee," said one senior campaign official in the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
(sarcasm OFF)
Must have been the New Hampshire chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Calm down, ladies.
Where do I have to park to get a new CBF sticker? Mine's getting worn.
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