美国国家公共电台 NPR Local Candidates Are The Subject Of Political Tracking, Too

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

It's hard to imagine politics these days without candidates playing gotcha with the other side. One method is called political tracking. That's the practice of following candidates around and then just constantly filming what they say in public. Now, this has been pretty common in big races, but now candidates for local office are finding themselves being tracked. North Country Public Radio's Lauren Rosenthal has the story.

LAUREN ROSENTHAL, BYLINE¹: A video surfaced this summer of Democratic congressional candidate Tedra Cobba meeting with teenagers in upstate New York. There isn't much to look at. The tape is shaky and out of focus.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING²)

TEDRA COBB: When I was at this...

ROSENTHAL: But listen closely, and you can hear Cobb saying something controversial, that she supports a ban on assault weapons. But she's following campaign advice to keep that private.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COBB: Do not say...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: That was a...

COBB: ...That you want an assault rifle ban...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: No.

COBB: ...Because you will not win.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Before we a...

ROSENTHAL: The tape went viral. It turns out the person who made this recording is a 17-year-old who was hired by national Republican officials. He's now an intern³ for Cobb's opponent in this race, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. Stefanik says tracking is common on both sides. Democrats⁴ and Republicans do it.

ELISE STEFANIK: Going back to my first campaign, I've been tracked for years. I get tracked in Congress. I get tracked outside my home. I get tracked in public events and private fundraisers.

ROSENTHAL: Stefanik says that's just part of being in Congress. But even in more local politics and races way down the ballot⁵, tracking is starting to become a fixture⁶. In the last few years, video or audio recordings⁷ have shaken up at least a half dozen state House and gubernatorial races, a race for mayor in Atlanta and even a petition drive in the city of Palm Bay, Fla., where the deputy mayor worked with his mother to track people circulating petitions. USC political scientist Christian⁸ Grose says this practice of tracking political players on tape has spread pretty far from its roots.

CHRISTIAN GROSE: One of the very first ones I can remember that was a major tracking event was the Virginia Senate race in the 2000s when George Allen was speaking in a really rural area.

ROSENTHAL: Allen used the word macaca, a racial slur⁹, to refer to the tracker who was filming him that day. Allen lost his election by a tiny margin¹⁰. That was 2006. A few years later, Mitt¹¹ Romney was caught on tape at a fundraiser criticizing people who don't pay taxes. The tape derailed his campaign. Researcher Robin¹² Kolodny says, over time, smartphones have made it much easier to record candidates and share information fast. Kolodny says there's always a risk of being tracked, no matter what you're running for.

ROBIN KOLODNY: You just ought to assume that everything - that, like, there's the camera in your house, you know? - that everything is being surveilled, just waiting for, you know, the statement that's going to ruffle¹³ some people.

ROSENTHAL: Shocking voters is a tried-and-true political strategy, says Tammy Vigil, a communications professor at Boston University.

TAMMY VIGIL: For a long stretch, there was a lot of research that actually showed that negative campaign ads could be influential¹⁴. And I think we've sort of taken that to the extreme.

ROSENTHAL: Vigil says researchers are starting to examine what happens when negativity and strategies like tracking trickle¹⁵ down to local politics, too. Some candidates have chosen to cut back on public events where they're at risk of being filmed. Tedra Cobb, the candidate who was secretly recorded talking about gun control in upstate New York, says she doesn't want to hide from voters.

COBB: I'm going to engage kids and adults to have these hard conversations. And that's what we were doing.

ROSENTHAL: But there is a price to that. Cobb's opponent recently put out a political ad with the comments about gun control front and center.

(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD, "CLEAR CHOICE")

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR: She confessed that admitting that in public would destroy her campaign. If we can't trust Tedra Cobb the candidate, how can we ever trust her in Congress?

ROSENTHAL: That's a question voters may find themselves asking about candidates closer and closer to home.

For NPR News, I'm Lauren Rosenthal in upstate New York.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 fixture   

n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款

参考例句：

• Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
• The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。

7 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

8 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

9 slur   

v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音

参考例句：

• He took the remarks as a slur on his reputation.他把这些话当作是对他的名誉的中伤。
• The drug made her speak with a slur.药物使她口齿不清。

10 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

11 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

12 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

13 ruffle   

v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边

参考例句：

• Don't ruffle my hair.I've just combed it.别把我的头发弄乱了。我刚刚梳好了的。
• You shouldn't ruffle so easily.你不该那么容易发脾气。

14 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

15 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。