Senate candidates' staffers look for that 'macaca' moment

By Austin Wright

For the most part, people are polite. They know Jesse Mallory is just doing his job.

People sometimes try to block his hand-held camera when he's filming the candidate, but Mallory steps to the side and continues.

"You just got to get around them," he said. "That's really all you can do."

Mallory is what has become known as a "tracker." As a paid staffer on former Gov. Jim Gilmore's U.S. Senate campaign, one of his duties is to follow the Democratic opponent, former Gov. Mark Warner, recording his every move.

Mallory is ready to capture any dramatic slip-up, but mainly he's at the campaign events to keep a record of what's being said. An inconsistency in Warner's message could be fodder for a news release, a commercial or a YouTube video clip.

Gilmore is getting the same treatment from Warner's supporters this election year. Both campaigns remember what happened in 2006.

It's been almost two years since former U.S. Sen. George Allen's infamous campaign gaffe in Virginia's last U.S. Senate race became a turning point in his failed re-election bid against Democrat Jim Webb.

Allen looked straight into a video camera and called its operator, one of Webb's campaign workers, "macaca," then welcomed him to the "real world" of Virginia.

S.R. Sidarth, Webb's Virginia-born staffer of Indian descent, was tracking Allen at a campaign event in Southwest Virginia.

Sidarth's video footage of the senator was posted on the Internet and became a national sensation that turned what might have been an easy victory for Allen into a competitive race. Some took offense at the term macaca, which is a racial slur in parts of Africa.

The popular Republican senator lost the election to Webb, putting Democrats in control of the Senate and ending Allen's hopes for a presidential run.

Suddenly, tracking was no longer a relatively unknown part of the political process.

"It's standard operating procedure," said Jared Leopold, communications director for Virginia Victory 2008, an organization working to get Warner and other Democrats elected. "All major political candidates know that it's the lifestyle now.

"It's expected in this 24-hour news cycle," Leopold added, noting that trackers rarely get hostile treatment. "We need to get a sense of what people are saying on the campaign trail and how we should respond to it."

Virginia Victory 2008 coordinates the trackers who are following this year's state Republican candidates.

Leopold declined to make trackers available for interviews but acknowledged that Democratic campaign worker Meg Burcke has been following Gilmore.

Ana Gamonal, Gilmore's spokeswoman, said the Republicans know about Burcke.

"Gov. Gilmore knows her - we all know her," Gamonal said. "She's become part of the team almost."

Gamonal said Gilmore makes a point to introduce Burcke at campaign events and asks supporters to treat her warmly. She also said Gilmore recognizes that everything he says, even in one-on-one conversations, could be documented.

"In today's world of technology and YouTube, you're on duty 24/7," Gamonal said. "The governor is not concerned, because he's very consistent on his policies."

Mallory said tracking prevents candidates from changing their positions to suit specific audiences, especially as candidates travel from liberal-leaning Northern Virginia to more conservative parts of the state.

The Democrats follow Gilmore full time, but the Republicans track Warner only at certain campaign events.

Mallory said he doesn't expect to catch a macaca moment. Instead, he's looking for policy contradictions that might go unnoticed.

The GOP worker said he caught Warner flipping positions at an April 16 campaign event in Wakefield. He filmed the candidate saying that the country should take a look at offshore oil drilling. The Gilmore campaign said the statement is inconsistent with Warner's 2005 veto of a bill that would have asked the federal government to allow offshore drilling.

"I remember hearing him tell people something, and I was like, 'What?' " Mallory said. "So we went back and looked at the record and realized he changed his positions."

A few weeks later, the Gilmore campaign issued a news release titled "Mark Warner Flip Flops Again!"

Austin Wright, (757) 446-2667, austin.wright@pilotonline.com