Political skulduggery in Republican 1st District Congressional Race

Today in Hays Sue Boldra announced that she is a candidate for Congress from the “Big First” district of Western Kansas.  But before she could complete her announcement, she learned how unfair politics can be.

An unknown person or group put up a fake blog named “Kansans for Sue Boldra” to confuse and misinform her supporters before Boldra announced her candidacy.

The first word I thought of to describe the fake blog was “bizarre” before I learned the page was not authorized by Boldra and was a complete fake.  A real supporter would not have written what was on that page.

I won’t dignify that site by revealing its name or discussing its content, but let’s say the intent of the articles was to confuse and mislead voters and potential supporters.

This fake blog also announced the formation of a fake Facebook group, Kansas for Sue Boldra for Congress, to reach out to young people.

When asked by phone about the unauthorized Facebook group Boldra laughed and said the first thing she wanted to do was correct the spelling on the page! The Hutchinson News said Boldra has 38 years of teaching experience at middle school, high school and the university level.

The fake Facebook group was supposedly setup by someone named Sarah Heckerman from Wichita.  There is no registered voter in Kansas with that name.  An attempt to contact the only registered voter in Wichita with the name Heckerman for comment was not successful.

I will join that fake Facebook group and post a note that the group is fake and is not authorized by the Boldra campaign.  I ask others to join that group and condemn whoever created it. We all want young people informed and involved in political discussion, but not deceived into being manipulated through a fake Facebook group.

Boldra said she was amazed about how quickly pictures had been lifted from a newspaper site and incorporated in the fake blog and fake Facebook group.  She expressed concern about the copyright violation of the newspaper photograph taken in her home just hours before it was seen on the Internet.  Boldra has no photograph of herself on her authorized web site yet, and is considering not using the ones shown on the fake sites to avoid possible confusion.

Civil, public discourse on issues where people disagree is difficult enough.  Name calling and distortion confuse voters, but is common in politics.  This type of political skulduggery in setting up fake blogs and Facebook pages to mislead and misinform voters should be condemned by everyone.

The Democratic Kansas Jackass blog should be commended for being the first to condemn the fake Internet blog.  The Jackass said:

I’m disgusted by whoever launched that blog. Blogs like this one are the reason people don’t like blogs and the reason people don’t trust blogs- and for good reason.

Later in the day Bagyant’s blog talked about Dirty Tricks in CD-1:

The only opinion I have on the matter is this: for anyone who seeks to be an elected official, it is tantamount to malpractice to deliberately mislead voters. The internet is the most democratic medium of communication – it’s meant to be used to bring people closer to their representatives. Its purpose is to enlighten, not obfuscate. To cynically exploit it isn’t illegal, but it is, for lack of a better term, pretty damn lame.

Again, both the Kansas Jackass and Bagyant’s blog should be commended for identifying this unethical blogging.  [This is a rare day when we all agree on something.]

Many political types in Kansas have speculated who may be behind that fake Boldra blog, and other blogs about Kansas politics, such as the defunct blog that had various Old West characters. These blogs containing intentional misinformation to mislead voters should be condemned.

I understand why some blog anonymously, but that shouldn’t lower ethical standards.  I was semi-anonymous on my blog for years, but started signing my articles in August 2008 when I no longer feared being discovered (since I had been discovered).  Being anonymous on the Internet should not mean a license to lie, mislead, and misinform voters.

I have no proof of who is behind the fake blog and Facebook group, so I won’t mention any names.  BUT, when there is compelling proof of who is behind this kind of political skulduggery in Kansas,  I ask bloggers on both the left and right to expose the lack of ethics by whoever is doing this.

Clearly, whoever is doing this is not fit for public office, but let’s have concrete proof of who is behind it before we accuse anyone by name.

P.S.  Sue Boldra is always welcome to correct my spelling, grammar or anything wrong about what I write.

Tags: Facebook, Sue Boldra, U.S. Congress