Imagine if your mother or sister was followed around wherever she went by strange men who described themselves as her “trackers” and filmed her wherever she went. Imagine that they were being funded by a group of people who were eager to embarrass and annoy your relative because they wanted to get her fired from her job and run her out of town. Would you call this acceptable behavior, or stalking?

The Maine Democratic Party seems to think the former. From Gateway Pundit:

Democrats are already harassing Republicans a year before elections!
And, their violent tactics continue from assaulting conservative speakers, to spitting on soldier amputees, to ambushing speakers on stage, to screaming at conservative speakers during public events, to strange protests at senate hearings.

Former Nazi Youth member Hilmar Von Campe compares this behavior by democrats to the former storm troopers in Nazi Germany who would shut up the opposition.

Now the Maine Democratic Party is stalking Republican Senator Susan Collins a year and months before the election.
The stalker posted his video at the Maine Democratic YouTube page

The video he mentions is this creepy clip of an out of work reporter named Rick Redman who seems to have a history with the woman being stalked, Senator Susan M. Collins, as the first few minutes of the video make clear.

[youtube]Qj9eBWREQmE[/youtube]

He also has a history of stalking, and you can find comments on left wing sites praising his work as a stalker on the Allen campaign. The “tracking” program is one residents of Maine have already noticed, and like anyone else gotten creeped out by. From Bangor Daily News:

Tracking is the campaign practice of filming an opponent to the greatest extent possible, making amply certain the opponent is aware of the filming. Nominally, tracking is used to gather information, but in reality, a camera stuck in the face of the opponent is a weapon to intimidate, harass and provoke that person into doing something foolish. Once accomplished, as fast as you can say “macaca,” the embarrassing film clip is sent, oh, everywhere in the universe.

Maine Democrats currently are using the tactic against Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose chief of staff Monday asked the Tom Allen for Senate Campaign to cease. The campaign has refused. This is unwise, not only because it worsens the opportunity for Maine to hold a decent race between two strong candidates, but because it could backfire — Maine has a low tolerance for this kind of campaigning. As Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud said Monday of tracking, “Something like that, I don’t think Maine people will appreciate.”

He is correct, and they should not appreciate it because it does not reflect Maine values. It certainly doesn’t make for a fair election and, at the very least, it tramples on the privacy of Maine people who commonly approach elected officials with specific issues on which they need help. Those previously private conversations could now end up on YouTube if the tracker feels something unusual was said.

Democratic officials defend the tactic by arguing that everybody does it and that a form of tracking was used by the Baldacci campaign in 2006 against Republican Chandler Woodcock. Two things: Maine is not obliged to adopt egregious practices from other states, no matter how often national senatorial committees insist it does; and if the best campaigns can do is match the dismal 2006 gubernatorial race, they might as well pack it up now.

Before the use of tracking gets out of hand, the Allen and Collins campaigns should develop ground rules for the use of cameras by anyone associated with their campaigns. For instance, filming speeches, meetings, events where the candidate is offering policy or ideas, are all fair game as exercises in information gathering, as the Collins camp suggested. Using the camera to harass the candidate is not. (In the most recent case, Democratic Party worker Rick Redmond tracked Sen. Collins in a recent Stockton Springs parade, perhaps waiting for her to frown at the wrong time or sneeze inappropriately, but certainly not expecting a policy announcement in midparade.)

BDN is a center left publication which is trying to be politic in the criticism it heaps on the Democratic candidate Tom Allen, but the subtext is clear. Moderate and centrist Democrats are not yet sufficiently Kossified to accept this sort of unseemly behavior, and most are decent enough people to realize that a man following around a woman is an outrageous attempt at intimidation. What the Maine Dem’s would say if some conservative followed around Amanda Marcotte with a camera and described himself as her “tracker?”

The video is hosted at the Maine Democrats Youtube page and the Maine Democrats contact info is here. All decent Americans should let them know that this is unacceptable.

And surprise, the top link on the Maine Dem’s link page: DailyKos.