Michigan GOP Sent Staffers to Secretly Record a Democratic Fundraiser
Your mission, young GOP staffers: Infiltrate a fundraiser for Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer, wearing a spy camera mounted to your glasses, and record everything you see there. Whatever you do, don't let the footage get into the wrong hands.
Natalie Collins, a regional GOP press secretary, and Kyle Anderson, an intern, shot the above uneventful footage at a Schauer fundraiser June 22 after being tasked with such a mission. The only problem: a memory card containing the footage was found on the floor of a local union hall after a Democratic Party meeting July 8 — perhaps the duo was snooping there too?
Michigan GOP communications director Darren Littell acknowledged to The Detroit News that the party had sent its staffers to spy:
"Republicans do it; Democrats do it," Littell told The Detroit News. "People use different ways to get the footage. ... This is a newer approach."
The footage itself is completely mundane: Collins and Anderson eat pineapple, criticize an attendee's sartorial choices, and tell Schauer running-mate Lisa Brown about "that frat life" Anderson lives as a University of Michigan student. The most exciting moment comes when Collins turns her aesthetic eye to the home's decor: "Their art kind of clashes with everything, especially the ones in here. Have you noticed?"
Schauer campaign staffers were already wary of Republican interlopers before the footage turned up. From The Detroit News:
Pohl said the Schauer campaign employee became suspicious of the pair and sent him a text message alerting him about the presence of possible Republican trackers inside the fundraiser. That's not entirely unusual in political campaigns for members of an opposing party to buy access to a private fundraiser, Pohl said.
"They had a suspicion, but no way to prove it. It's not like they pulled out a camera or anything," Pohl said. "We didn't realize they recorded it with their super-secret spy glasses."
By the end of the video, the spies can tell something is amiss. "OK, that lady was freaking me out," Collins says as they walk to their car. Anderson replies: "Yeah, I think she's onto us."