Mitchell turns camera on his GOP tracker
Walker accuses Democrat challenger of bullying
Mahlon Mitchell this week turned the camera on his GOP tracker.
The unusual tactic Wednesday by the Democratic candidate for governor — broadcast via Facebook Live — prompted the tracker to stammer for an awkward minute, climb into his car and drive away.
“You don’t like this?” Mitchell asked as the man headed to his car. “You don’t like someone following you around with a camera all the time? So the tracker doesn’t like being asked questions on the (camera) phone.”
Brian Reisinger, senior adviser to Republican Gov. Scott Walker, said it was typical for both sides to film their opponents’ activities and accused Mitchell of bullying tracker Ben Stelter on what Reisinger said was Stelter’s birthday.
“What’s not standard is for a union boss and man in a position of authority to bully a 23-year-old on his birthday, all the way to his car,” Reisinger said of Mitchell, who is president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.
“What happened to the high road Mitchell is always talking about?”
Mitchell — one of eight Democrats running in the Aug. 14 primary — scoffed at Reisinger’s claim that he had acted like a bully and accused the governor of displaying “fake outrage.”
He said trackers had been filming him on and off since he got in the race last year and he decided to show Stelter what it was like when Stelter was filming him while Mitchell was canvassing for votes in Milwaukee.
“I would fire back and say I was being bullied,” Mitchell said. “If he’s going to record me, I thought I would record him.”
Political campaigns often attend their opponents’ events to capture everything they do and say on camera. That way they have ready-made material when candidates make missteps.
Mitchell’s allies said they considered Stelter’s work on Wednesday unusual because he was filming Mitchell as he knocked on doors, raising the likelihood that ordinary people would be caught on camera. Those backing Walker countered that Mitchell’s response was unwarranted because it involved a campaign worker, not a public figure.
Mitchell’s team gathered Wednesday at the home of Rep. David Crowley (D-Milwaukee) and headed out from there to knock on doors.
“It’s outlandish to me,” Crowley said Thursday. “For the Walker campaign to only have someone in my neighborhood when he wants to track someone is mind-boggling and a little offensive.”
During the confrontation, Mitchell asked Stelter who was paying him and how much he makes — questions Stelter didn’t answer.
“Probably not as much as the $200,000 that you make,” Stelter said.
He was referring to Mitchell making $200,000 in 2016 for his work as union president and as a lieutenant with the Madison Fire Department.
While Stelter didn’t answer questions about his job, Reisinger said Stelter works for the Walker campaign. In addition, campaign finance records show Stelter has received about $8,600 in wages and expenses from the state Republican Party’s state and federal accounts since last summer.
“Why do you use the union to benefit yourself?” Stelter asked Mitchell. Mitchell responded: “I don’t.” Soon afterward, the tracker left. “That’s what … I’m going to do every time I have a tracker — that is, turn it back on them,” Mitchell said at the end of his Facebook Live video. “So, now he’s gone. We’re going back to canvass and hit the neighborhood.”