“Trackers” Watch For Gotchas

As he visited the press pit to chat with reporters, Dan Malloy (pictured) had another lens watching him — one from a ​“tracker” from the opposing campaign.

Steven Winter (at left in photo), who’s wrapping up his junior year at Yale University, wielded a hand-held Canon video camera Saturday, recording Democratic candidate for governor Malloy’s every movement as he weaved his way through the floor of the CT Expo Center in Hartford at the state Democratic Party convention.

Winter works for another Democrat who’s seeking the governor’s seat, Ned Lamont. Winter works as an official ​“tracker,” videotaping Malloy’s public appearances.

“He lives with us,” groaned Malloy campaign senior adviser Roy Occhiogrosso. ​“This guy pretty much rides in our car.”

Occhiogrosso’s campaign had a guy with a video camera following Lamont around, too. Asked if he was tracking Lamont, the camera man (at right in photo) replied, ​“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The emergence of trackers is a new phenomenon at the state Democratic convention.

“It’s something that it seems campaigns have to do,” said Democratic activist Tom Swan. ​“Now you’ve got to be two inches away from the candidate all the time.”

Trackers became a campaign necessity after Republican U.S. Senator George Allen’s ​“Macaca” video in 2006, several political insiders agreed.

The video captured Allen calling a volunteer for his Democratic opponent ​“Macaca” at a campaign event. The term is an anti-Indian slur; the volunteer was of Indian descent. Allen lost the election to Democrat James Webb. The video was believed to be the turning point in the campaign, and established YouTube as an important new campaign tool.

When the ​“Macaca” videotape came out, ​“everyone woke up” and saw the value of having a tracker, said Joe Abbey, who’s running Lamont’s gubernatorial bid after running a Virginia campaign. Since then, trackers have become ​“standard” for campaigns, Abbey said.

Winter said he’s been tracking Malloy for about three weeks, since his classes at Yale ended for the semester. He’s mainly been following Malloy as he courts Democratic town committees around the state. (Malloy earned 51 DTC endorsements.) He records hours and hours of video footage, which is later reviewed by campaign staff.

The tracker’s dream, said Winter, is to find that ​“Macaca” moment, put up a clip on Youtube, and watch it go viral. The day-to-day job is mundane.

Saturday, Winter watched as Malloy leaned into CTMirror reporter Mark Pazniokas’ laptop and chatted about a photo of Vince McMahon. He watched Malloy hug people on the way to his war room. Then he stood outside and waited as Malloy went in to ​“rest.” (Winter is pictured at center in photo, with Malloy at left and Pazniokas at right.)

Occhiogrosso said the campaign has learned to live with a camera lens one foot away. When Malloy wants to talk to his family or have a private conversation, the tracker has been good about setting the camera down, he said.

Lamont campaign manager Abbey said his campaign has had someone following Malloy and Republican candidate Tom Foley for ​“the last few weeks.”

Right now, ​“it’s all about documentation,” Abbey said. The goal is to see if candidates contradict themselves, or make a promise that they later go back on.

Occhiogrosso said the practice started on the national level after ​“Macaca,” then ​“trickled down” to local campaigns. It’s new to the state convention, he said — four years ago, no Mayor John DeStefano campaign staffer was following Malloy around.

So far, no damning videos have emerged from either side.

For the most part, the campaign hasn’t had trouble with tracker behavior, Occhiogrosso said. Tracker Winter said people were generally nice to him Saturday, except when an opponent slapped a Malloy campaign sticker on his back.

The emergence of trackers has caused some friction with news reporters.

A tracker named Adam Susaneck (pictured) followed Lt. governor candidate Nancy Wyman around the floor. After earning the party’s nomination, Wyman paid a visit to the press pit. The tracker followed as she chatted to a reporter, who was showing Wyman pictures of her grandkids, looking wide-eyed on the stage. The reporter asked the tracker to stop videotaping.

“I’m a reporter talking to a candidate,” the reporter warned. ​“I’m about to take that [camera] and shove it up your ass!”

“I know it’s obnoxious,” conceded Susaneck. He refused to stop filming, and left shortly after with Wyman.

The interaction prompted a press pit discussion about proper videotaping etiquette.

“With trackers, it’s hard to maintain privacy or ability to have off-the-record conversations, and that, I think, is damaging,” noted blogger Aldon Hynes. ​“It’s especially damaging in that it promotes ​‘gotcha’ journalism that misses the context of the story.”