June 06, 2009 05:47 PM UTC

Ritter campaign caught sock-puppeting my blog

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• by: Steve Balboni

I wake up this morning to find 4 comments on my post “More Bumbling From Ritter” waiting for my approval. 4 comments is a lot for any post of mine on my personal blog so that seemed a bit suspicious. Each comment was from an “Anonymous” account and each comment was in support of Ritter’s veto. I check my site stats and there are 14 visits yesterday that arrived at my blog via a direct link from a GoogleDoc. I dig a little deeper and I have 35 visits to my site between June 4th and June 5th, some directly from the GoogleDoc link and others just coming straight here, from IP addresses registered to… The Kenney Group. This the outfit that led Ritter’s severance tax measure to a crushing defeat last fall and who’s sole named partner is currently managing Ritter’s re-elect campaign.

Let the record show that Bill Ritter’s campaign has been caught red-handed sock-puppeting my blog. They apparently have linked to me in a campaign GoogleDoc and are sending staffers and/or volunteers to my blog to post comments in defense of the governor.

I guess in a way I should be flattered that the Kenney Group even knows this little blog exists. Really though I’m just laughing at how pathetically transparent and ham-handed this whole operation has been. The comments themselves read as though they were issued by a communications intern on summer break and the campaign has taken no steps to cover their digital tracks.

It also reeks of desperation.