This kidnapping of Philly homeless and bringing them to Maryland story

[Robbien]

just keeps getting better and better

Observers have been shocked and outraged by two Maryland Republicans' use of homeless and poor Philadelphians to pass out misleading campaign material at the polls on Election Day. Now it turns out the duo had tried this sort of thing before.

This past Tuesday, for $100 and the promise of three meals, the GOP candidates for governor and senator recruited dozens of the least fortunate from Philadelphia's shelters -- all or most of whom were black -- to come to Maryland for the day and pass out fliers portraying the two hopefuls as "our choice" for African-American voters. (Steele is black; Ehrlich most definitely is not.)

The tactic was brazenly amoral, but also logistically curious. Why did the candidates go all the way to Philadelphia for homeless people, when there are thousands in Baltimore and nearby Washington, D.C.? If they wanted deniability, why did Ehrlich's wife -- Maryland's current first lady -- meet the buses and pass out hats?

It turns out the duo pulled a very similar stunt at least once before, in 2002, according to the New Republic. Then, they pulled homeless people from D.C. shelters, and black students from nearby Bowie State, and the candidates kept their distance from the operation. Instead of telling them to distribute literature, the campaign instructed the recruits to go door-to-door in predominantly black neighborhoods, telling residents that they were "volunteers" trying to get Maryland to elect its first black lieutenant governor.

It was a debacle:

Go read the rest at tpm muckrackers
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001977.php

[Frances]

1. And Steele wants to head the RNC

I guess his slimy ways in Maryland will fit right in with the national GOP

[Bitwit1234]

2. I have posted this all over the net and that's

not all they did. They put Ehrlich's picture over the picture of Kathleen Townsend who had posed with prominent black politic ans from Maryland. The said that all the black politic ans supported Ehrlich and Steele. Then they also went door to door in the black democratic areas of Baltimore and Prince Georges County and told people if they had unpaid parking tickets, if their utility bills or rent was late there would be a police officer there to arrest them. In some of the other areas they put up posters telling people due to machine difficulty voting was postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday...Republicans are the most reprehensible people going...I suppose they thought it worked once they would try it again.

[EFerrari]

3. They do this stuff every year. They are disgusting AND stupid.

[ShaneGR]

4. First time a Republican created a job for a black man??

Just wondering.