Dems Up the Ante on Dirty Tricks

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The Merc is reporting on a new strategy from the CDP to disrupt signature-gathering for the Dirty Tricks Initiative:

"We're asking volunteers and activists to be fraud busters," Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a telephone conference call, "to help stop Republicans from stealing the White House."

Torres said he's calling on party volunteers to help find the location of signature gatherers and post them on the state party's Web site "so everybody can see where they are, and we can proceed to the locations to offer rebuttals or register Democratic voters at the same time.

"Our intention is not to harass, nor to engage, nor to debate people collecting signatures," Torres added. "This is the first time I've authorized a 'do not sign' campaign, which we want to be not only non-violent but non-intrusive on anybody else's First Amendment rights."

If it is what he says it is, then fantastic.  When was the last time there was a debate in the public square over policy and politics?  But I can't imagine that this actually plays out in the manner Art Torres envisions.  If this evolves into a significant network of volunteers statewide, there's going to inevitably be inappropriate behavior and confrontation that results from passionate people disagreeing.  It's already being described by Republicans, predictably, as harassment of signature gatherers and signers.

I applaud the energy, and I'm encouraged by the underlying goal of fighting this every step of the way, but I do wonder just how far California Democrats can carry the scorched earth strategy here without the eventual voter disenchantment coming back to bite Democratic efforts.

All that said...I'll probably end up volunteering for it at some point.