Food fight on the right: Web 2.0 edition

by: Jason Springer

Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 11:30:00 AM EDT

If you've been enjoying the Republican Primary campaign for Governor via traditional media, you're in for a treat. The food fight has spilled over to the intertubes. First, it's facebook surrogates gone wild between. Here we have an exchange between Lonegan Consultant Rick Shafton and Christie brother Todd Christie:

On April 6, Todd Christie sent Shaftan a private message on Facebook.com, writing "Can't wait to dance on your political grave."
Three days later, Shaftan responded, "Lighten up dude. This is nothing compared to what's coming up. It just gets better!"
Todd Christie wrote back with what Shaftan took as an ominous message: "This is fun for you messing with peoples lives. Payback comes in many forms,,,,at any time. Enjoy."

Ah family. Montclair State University political science professor Brigid Harrison talked about the difference when it's family involved in a situation:

"Typically what a candidate can do in this situation is fire that staff member and distance themselves from that person's name and therefore abdicate any responsibility," she said. "It's really tricky to fire your brother."

Even though the apparent timeline shows Todd Christie making first contact, the Christie campaign is of course placing blame:

"This is ridiculous - a paid campaign staffer initiating and then purposefully provoking an opponent's family member in an online chat, and then forwarding the exchange to the media. This is nothing more than a distraction from the real issues of the campaign," he said.

So by real issues they mean talking about the monitor contracts? Anyway, they didn't stop at facebook because we now have Lonegan needling Christie on Twitter. After their teabagging together in Morristown, Lonegan sent out this tweet:

Chris Christie booed in his own backyard at the Morristown Tea Party
- Steve Lonegan (@lonegan)

I don't think Christie will care that he was booed if he wins the primary, but it's still providing some good entertainment as they learn to incorporate technology into their campaigns.

Jason Springer :: Food fight on the right: Web 2.0 edition