Watts Recording Campaign Interactions
By Vince Leibowitz on Sep 2, 2007 in 2008 Texas Elections ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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We’ve had a number of tipsters inform us that U.S. Senate candidate Mikal Watts appeared at an Austin function last week at which he was followed by a video camera, which is fairly common among campaigns today. However, Watts was also wired with a cordless microphone and had conversations with numerous individuals not near the camera, according to our sources, without advising them he was wearing the mic or disclosing whether or not it was on.
The television camera isn’t such a big deal as it is something done by a number of campaigns. The mic, however, is somewhat disconcerting. Was it on the whole time? Was it recording everyone he spoke with? Several tipsters told us they only noticed the mic (or were informed of its existence by others) after they’d spoken to Watts.
Any candidates who are going around with a mic should let everyone they talk to know this. It’s just common courtesy.
It’s fine for a candidate to be mic’d, but it’s not good when he doesn’t disclose up front to everyone he speaks with that he’s got the mic on. This is especially important if the mic is always ‘hot’ or the candidate doesn’t control when it is turned on.
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Wearing a wireless mike withough disclosing it was what got Senator Rodney Ellis in trouble in 1995. Paul Stekler was making “Vote For Me,” a political documentary, and Ellis worked the Senate floor, secretly miked. He was discovered after the fact and spent the 1997 session in the doghouse.