Projo Politics Blog

First, you had the state Democratic Party hiring someone to videotape Republican Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee’s public appearances. Now the Republican governor’s reelection campaign has boarded the videotape-your-opponent bandwagon.

At a news conference Wednesday at the Atwells Avenue campaign headquarters of Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, Fogarty staff asked Carcieri campaign staffer Mark McKiernan to leave after McKiernan set up a videocamera.

The campaign had sent McKiernan to videotape what Fogarty had to say about a new TV ad by the Republican Governors Association attacking Fogarty over his ethics and financial disclosure bill, which Carcieri has criticized as not having gone far enough.

Carcieri campaign spokesman Jeff Neal said the campaign sent McKiernan, whose regular job is to advance the governor’s campaign appearances, to tape Fogarty for these reasons: “It was a late afternoon press conference. It wasn’t clear what he was going to say, other than that it appeared he was going to take shots at Governor Carcieri. It did not appear to be issue-oriented. It appeared to be a news conference specifically designed to take whacks at Governor Carcieri. I thought it was important that we know exactly what he said.”

Neal accused Fogarty’s campaign of operating on a double standard when it comes to surveillance. “Fogarty’s campaign has repeatedly had representatives at Governor Carcieri’s news conferences and events to film him,” Neal said. “This has been going on for a couple of months now. It seems entirely in line with their campaign tactics that we would also be able to film what they were saying about Governor Carcieri. Apparently, they feel differently.”

Fogarty campaign spokesman Adam Bozzi said the campaign has not videotaped Carcieri — though he said an employee of the state Democratic Party, the same one hired totape Chafee, may have — but acknowledged the campaign does send representatives to listen to what Carcieri says.

He said the campaign asked McKiernan to leave because this event took place on private property, inside Fogarty’s campaign office. “If it’s an event outside or some neutral location, that’s fine, but we’re not going to go into their headquarters and we don’t expect them to come into our headquarters,” Bozzi said. “We think that’s only fair.” Wednesday’s event “was a press conference, for the press,” Bozzi said.

In a video of McKiernan’s interaction with a Fogarty staffer, posted on by Patrick Crowley, author of a blog on labor issues, a woman’s voice can be heard asking McKiernan to identify himself. When he’s asked which media outlet he’s with, McKiernan says he’s not with the media, then asks, “Would you like us to leave?” without ever saying he’s from the governor’s campaign.

Neal said McKiernan was not trying to hide his affiliation. “Charlie Fogarty’s campaign staff is well aware of Mark’s identity,” Neal said. “They have seen him many times and have all spoken to him directly on numerous occasions.”

By the way, that female voice in Crowley’s video was that of Susan G. Pegden. Pegden, 40, of Providence, previously worked as Fogarty’s spokeswoman at the State House, and spent a brief stint as spokeswoman for the state judiciary last year. Bozzi said Pegden joined the Fogarty campaign on Tuesday to help respond to media inquiries in the hectic rush of the campaign’s final days.

By Elizabeth Gudrais and Edward Fitzpatrick

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