Gephardt Aide Accuses Dean of Caucus Fraud Plan
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040108/ts_nm/campaign_dc
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Democrat Richard Gephardt's manager accused Howard Dean's presidential campaign on Thursday of planning to slip non-Iowans into the Jan. 19 caucuses to pose as state residents and support Dean.
Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi denied the allegation and told Gephardt manager Steve Murphy "sleazy tactics like yours are exactly the reason that people have stopped participating in the political process."
This I'm sure is a not uncommon idea from political novice staff. Gephardt going public with this is troubling. How Dean's people react will also be telling. This can be an opportunity for them to take a very strong stand against this practice.
The proper response is something to the effect of:
"We have a lot of people working for us who are new to politics. It isn't too surprising that someone came up with this idea. It does concern us that it apparently got repeated several times before someone explained why it was wrong. We take a very strong stand against this kind of thing and we are making that very clear to our volunteers."
Though I'm sure a speech writer could do it better.