https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1WX0XR8q24&feature=youtu.be
Since George Allen’s political career went up in flames, campaigns have had to deal with the all present camera chronicling their every move and looking for any slip-up.
Naturally, such a situation often causes friction between campaign staffers and the opposition tracker. This was the case today when Governor Corbett’s special assistant Dennis Roddy confronted a staffer from FreshStartPA.
Roddy asked the man filming who he was and who he worked for. The tracker identified himself as part of Campaign for a Fresh Start, which Roddy (correctly) asserted was associated with Wolf’s campaign.
After a tense few moments when the two men got into each other’s personal space, Roddy walked over to a fellow Corbett staffer who told him that he was the man who had been tracking the Governor.
“The problem is, we never know when they’re gonna try to provoke something or if they’re gonna hurt the Governor,” Roddy told the member of Corbett’s staff.
Roddy eventually went back to the man who was filming and asked whether he was trying to intimidate people. He also seemed worried about the Governor’s safety and claimed the cameraman’s presence made them nervous.
All the while, the Governor was amicably chatting with three police officers so presumably he was safe.
After the episode ended, Fresh Start sent out the video as an example of the Governor’s staff trying to intimidate their employee. This, of course, is the goals of campaign trackers, to provoke a response.
“It is a sad day when Governor Tom Corbett stands by while his senior staff member bullies someone trying to do their job,” said Campaign for a Fresh Start spokesman Mike Mikus. “Does Tom Corbett pay Dennis Roddy a $108,812 a year to harass people? Does Tom Corbett think it is OK to use public employees to intimidate political opponents? Unless he holds Dennis Roddy accountable, the answer to these questions will be a resounding ‘yes.’”
Update: PoliticsPA asked the Corbett campaign for comment and Communications Director Chris Pack sent the following statement:
“Does millionaire Tom Wolf have the details on how much his income tax proposal will raise taxes on middle class families and businesses yet?”
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21 Responses
Except this is not a “nice” Bud Melman. This is mean Bud Melman, or Mirror Bud Melman if you will. From a nutty alternate universe where a tone-deaf jerk of an incompetent runs Pennsylvania.
When did “millionaire” get a negative connotation from the Republicans? Nice that Larry “Bud” Mellman is remembered.
how on earth did you someone with such a professional crop of staffers end up 25 points behind?
Roddy Definitely tried to intimidate the Tracker, but when he looks like Larry “Bud” Mellman it is tough to be intimidated. Corbett and his crew can’t even get intimidation correct.
Did anyone else notice that $108,812 “special assistant” to Governor @CorbettForGov, Dennis Roddy, worried that a single camera man is endangering Gov, who has 3 armed cops around him, NEVER IDENTIFIES HIMSELF. He just demands answers as if he has some authority.
#PleaseBeAGhostEmployeeInstead
Amen to #3, David Diano. Less resources on the dude who can’t touch you, more on getting a friendly General Assembly to do all the stuff we all want you to do. Three flippable Senate seats, you only need two, with Stack as tie-breaker. Get em in there.
r.m. berkos you aint telling truths, goevnor corbit aint no millonair, he a reglar guy and his onlyt money is his pay he get for being gov, and aint no other salry., and he gonna win a land slide cuz the way it work hear in penna is guvs. get to be guv. two terms,
I agree with the comment questioning why the Wolf campaign is wasting resources. Let us bring on the second debate. Corbett staffers are crowing that the real Tom Corbett emerged in the first debate. Could not agree more.
Millionaire Governor Corbett was stupefied when confronted with the General Fund overdrawing two weeks ago, 2 1/2 months into his “balanced” 2014 budget.
Millionaire Governor Corbett refused to take the NO NEW TAX pledge, so from who and whither thou thinkest HE will seek to gather funds to heal his hemorrhaging budget?
Millionaire Governor Corbett’s response to 27,000 teachers losing their jobs was that they were not all teachers.
Millionaire Governor Corbett revealed his ongoing education matrix studies, so he knows there is a problem. Yet – he gave no budget numbers.
Millionaire Governor Corbett loudly trumpets his ending of the capital stock and franchise tax, then condemns Dr. Wolf for his ties to the business community.
Only tangentially related to this thread – as in talking about things “real” – you gotta admit using a fake photo of a Smiling Tom Corbett surrounded by smiling people was pretty darn funny. They had no real photo of Corbett surrounded by smiling people – outside of a big gas office party.
This is classic example of what I call “Pennsylvania Dirty”. It didn’t take this guy two minutes to start insinuating that the cameraman was “violent” because the cameraman had a different political viewpoint than the staff guy had. You people descend to personal slander in a heartbeat—when it isn’t about saying nasty things about the person behind their back. Happy-Quaker-Ben-Franklin-friend-in-Pennsylvania? Disagreements are more like this altercation.
Does anybody else think that Roddy looks like Larry “Bud” Melman?
WTF am I reading? I see two staffers arguing. When does the special report on Mike Mikus’s Twitter war with the Corbett campaign drop?
Anyone remember when PoliticsPA was a legitimate news source?
Roddey used to be a reporter. A pretty good one in fact. Did he forget everything he knew then? And did he forget how he used to dog people to get a story? Come on Dennis.
VOTE CORBUT/MARTINEZ 2 TEA BAGGER LOSERS
BTW, in response to Chris Pack’s fake question: “Does millionaire Tom Wolf have the details on how much his income tax proposal will raise taxes on middle class families and businesses yet?”
The answer is: middle-class families and businesses will feel little effect because millionaires and upper class will be paying a fairer share. So, middle class families won’t be paying more and getting fewer services like they have under Corbett.
The reason Corbett has lost this race is that middle class families are paying more taxes (for schools) because Corbett failed to support extraction tax and other revenue generators. Instead, Corbett cut revenues and short changed education, forcing tuition and tax hikes, while losing teachers and school programs. So, Corbett’s plan of more taxes and fewer services for the middle class while giving more tax-breaks and less oversight of polluters, has now become his failed legacy.
Back prior to the primary, I was at a Wolf event in rural PA and there were 2 trackers for the Corbett campaign that showed up and whipped their video camera out. A few of the locals wanted to approach them, but the Wolf campaign people advised to just leave them alone. They filmed Wolf’s speech and then hung around outside filming Wolf talking to people as he left. Everybody on both sides wants to get the “Macacca Moment” thanks to George Allen
1) If Roddy thinks a man with a camera is “intimidating” to police-officer-surrounded Corbett, then Roddy must understand that any reminder that Corbett is still Governor is detrimental to Corbett.
2) Chris Pack doesn’t seem to know how to answer the question asked regarding the story. This is pretty sad when a Communications Director is so bad at his job that he can’t even spin an answer associated with the actual story (even tangentially associated).
3) Why is Fresh Start wasting ANY resources filming a dead-man-walking? They should be putting their efforts into getting State Leg/Senate candidates elected so Wolf has some coattails, and has a legislature he can work with. This is a complete waste of effort by Fresh Start, instead of doing something productive for the entire ticket.
4) PoliticsPA: The “update” should read:
“PoliticsPA asked the Corbett campaign for comment and Communications Director Chris Pack was unable to provide a coherent reply on this story, and tried to change the subject to an unrelated talking point instead.”
the camra guy aint got no write to folo goevnor corbit any ware and he aint no aloud to take pixctures with in 100 foots of the Guvn.,
And if the tracker felt intimidated by this staffer, he should turn in his “man card.” Mommy, this mean man came up to me and asked me a question!
Only a wolf staffer would actually write a story based upon the release of this email. Nick Field is without a doubt auditioning for a job with a democratic elected official somewhere. I applaud Dennis Roddey and think both campaigns should stop with the tracking shenanigans.
This is ridiculous that you even give any of these trackers any additional encouragement. These trackers are the new paparazi. As far as his concern about the Governor’s safety, I think its a fair question. Trackers had fun getting people throwing shoes at Hillary Clinton or getting clips of staged supporters angrily confronting and screaming at politicans over their support for XYZ policy.
I wonder if Nickfield is going to take a job with Wolf before the campaign is over