"Republicans Are Creating Fake Sites for Democratic Candidates"

[applegrove]

Republicans Are Creating Fake Sites for Democratic Candidates

Miles Klee for The Daily Dot/Mashable

http://mashable.com/2014/02/12/republicans-fake-candidate-sites/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner

"SNIP....................................


In electoral politics, the candidate is meant to project a vision of governance, extolling her party's noble ideas and principles, all while letting her own beneficence shine through. When that doesn't work, you go ad hominem and straw man — you tear down your opponent and twist their beliefs into ghoulish fairy tales with which to frighten the underinformed voter. When even attack ads aren't making a dent, there's just one thing left to do: pretend to be the other guy online and see if you can vacuum up his supporters' money.

That, in a nutshell, is the desperate strategy the National Republican Congressional Committee — a GOP organization tasked with turning and keeping seats for the party in the U.S. House of Representatives — has cooked up for the 2014 midterms. As Motherboard reported, the NRCC "created a spate of fake websites for Democratic candidates that at first glance look like normal, legit sites, but then rip into the candidate in the text. The faux sites also have donation forms that send funds to the NRCC."

At least one person intending to give money to a Democratic candidate has been duped, and he didn't get his $250 refunded till the Tampa Bay Times ran his story. After submitting his credit card info via contribute.sinkforcongress2014.com, thinking he was supporting Alex Sink, former Chief Financial Officer for the state of Florida, Ray Bellamy realized his mistake: "I get a page clearly thanking me for attempting to defeat Democrats, Obama, and Pelosi," he said. The site "looked legitimate," and he "failed to notice the smaller print."

It's one thing to criticize your opponent, another to slander and misrepresent them, and an absolute nadir in ethics to reach for an electoral advantage based on nothing but bafflement. While this isn't as direct an example of voter suppression or coercion as typically disenfranchises people living in this country, it's every bit as shameless and indicative of ideological bankruptcy. Phony websites aren't an election-specific tactic, either; the California Assembly's Republican caucus directed residents to a supposed Affordable Care Act registration site that presented the case against President Obama's signature legislation.




....................................SNIP"

[Politicalboi]

1. Making more enemies for the GOP

But this should require jail time for these people who committed fraud.

[Isoldeblue]

2. They play so dirty!

Yet these are the same crooks who call libs on for a lack of family values. As if....

[C_U_L8R]

3. It's fraud

There should be arrests.

[struggle4progress]

5. +

[Iris]

4. What is this? 1997?

I mean, how long do they think they could pull that off?

[Gothmog]

6. These websites are illegal

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=84870