It's no secret among the netroots that Joe Trippi has been spinning for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney recently in her (still unannounced) primary bid against Senator Gillibrand. However, the website Politicker NY has looked at the FEC reports and determined that Trippi has in fact been astro-turfing for Maloney nearly a month longer than they had previously admitted.
Back on June 24, Democratic consultant Joe Trippi blogged on the Huffington Post about how polls showed Representative Carolyn Maloney would make a much better, and more viable, candidate for U.S. Senator than Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and said that he hoped she "does decide to enter the race."
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According to Maloney's campaign filing, Trippi was already on her payroll. Records show that Maloney had cut Trippi's firm, Joe Trippi & Associates, a check for $10,500 on June 5.
The whole article is very short, and deserves a read. It's disappointing to find out that Trippi has so low an opinion of the party base that he assumes either this sort of thing won't come out, or that he (and by association, his employer) won't suffer because of it. Astroturfing is an unavoidable peril of the netroots, but to have such a high profile individual engaging in and encouraging it is both disrespectful and unacceptable. |
