Ping.
Bush's [Wash] state headquarters for re-election burglarizedExcerpt:Seaton said data on the computers was backed up and available elsewhere. But, he said, the loss creates a potential security breach about the campaign's so-called 72-hour plan, the Bush get-out-the-vote effort.
"Obviously there's some stuff there we wouldn't want our opposition getting their hands on," Seaton said.
The campaign has spoken about the importance of the 72-hour plan in swing states across the country. Bush campaign officials say it could make the difference in a close election if Republicans are able to make sure their voters get to a polling place on election day and don't sit home as many did four years ago.
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State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance called it a "Watergate-style break in" and said he suspects Democrats are behind it.
"If you're just some burglar looking for computers to sell to buy drugs you take every laptop in the office maybe," he said. "But they knew exactly whose computers to get. They got the executive director's computer and the get-out-the-vote director's computer."
State Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said Democrats had nothing to do with the break-in.
"I feel really bad. I know how upset I'd be if it happened to us," she said.
"There was nothing for us to gain by stealing those computers. Their secret plan isn't so secret and the fact is we're winning by a lot right now."