D.C. DEMS TAILING DIEHL
Warren’s likely GOP rival already hounded by dirt-seeking trackers
The 2018 re-election bid of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is already being bolstered by a liberal super PAC, which is deploying a team of “trackers” and researchers to hound her GOP opponent, a former Trump campaign leader.
The Herald has confirmed that the Washington, D.C.based Democratic super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, has launched the unusually early attempt to birddog Warren’s Republican challenger, state Rep. Geoff Diehl, in what Diehl calls an “aggressive” step to target his campaign.
Diehl, former state co-chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, said some of the group’s tactics are “disturbing” because they have attempted to record private conversations he’s had at campaign events.
“In one way it’s to be expected,” Diehl said in an interview. “At the same time, the tactics they’ve used, without telling me they’re recording, are troubling.”
A spokesman for American Bridge PAC, a pro-Democratic group funded partly by billionaire George Soros, confirmed the organization is tracking Diehl and plans to follow other potential GOP candidates running against Warren.
Super PACs are prohibited from coordinating with Warren’s campaign, but can release whatever research or information they uncover to damage her opponent’s campaign.
“As the 2018 race gets under way, American Bridge is tracking the entire clown car of announced and likely Republican candidates positioning themselves to run for Senate in Massachusetts,” spokesman Brad Bainum said.
So called “trackers” have become fixtures in campaigns in recent years, but American Bridge is following Diehl’s campaign a year and a half before the 2018 election.
The group’s involvement shows that Democrats aren’t taking Warren’s race for granted, even though she is the clear favorite in heavily liberal Massachusetts.
Diehl, an influential Trump campaign leader in Massachusetts, said American Bridge’s activities show how seriously they are taking his campaign. Diehl has announced he’s formed an exploratory campaign to challenge Warren, the only Republican so far to take that step.
“In some ways it’s a good sign,” Diehl said. The Whitman Republican said his campaign is not currently using trackers to follow Warren.
According to Diehl and his campaign, the American Bridge trackers showed up at his announcement, and at recent events in Orange and on Cape Cod.
At one event, Diehl realized he was being recorded while having a private conversation, so he approached the person and asked her to delete the recording. She complied, according to Diehl.
The Massachusetts lawmaker said he believes Democrats are also researching his past, pulling old records from a construction project he worked on and looking at the redevelopment of a performing arts school that he and his wife were involved with in Hanson.
American Bridge has become an influential player in national politics in recent years, and actively works to dig up opposition research on Republican candidates and follow them on the stump. The group was founded by former conservative-turned-liberal activist David Brock.
In its website, American Bridge calls itself a “progressive research and communications organization” that “researches candidates records” and “monitor(s) public appearances” in an attempt to hold Republicans accountable for their words.
American Bridge has been so successful that it’s inspired pro-Republican super PAC groups such as America Rising, which is now actively working to defeat Warren.