Political Campaign Shenanigans In Texas
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009I’ve not seen a lot about this online but this is honestly ridiculous.
Add a new item to the long list of political shenanigans that backfire once discovered. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) has decided to run for Texas governor against incumbent Rick Perry, and her new campaign website contained hidden text that read “rick perry gay.” The resulting flap led to the firing of the Web development firm involved, drew heated responses from Perry’s office, and (perhaps worst of all) saw Hutchison’s campaign website yanked from Google’s search index.
Texas newspapers uncovered the hidden text last week. The “rick perry gay” reference was one of only thousands of phrases tucked into the source code for Hutchison’s site, apparently to help draw search engine traffic.
What was Hutchinson’s web team thinking? IT folks are clever and can figure stuff out quicker than you and I can say the word “bloated.”
What gets me is her team did this to drive traffic to her site?
Huh?
She’s fired them but it appears Hutchinson’s got more on her plate to think about as well.
