ICYMI: Rodney Davis Campaign Impersonates Journalist

An investigative report by WCIA News revealed last night that a professional political operative supporting Congressman Rodney Davis’ campaign impersonated a reporter and ambushed a press call last week with Betsy Dirksen Londrigan and End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. Dirksen Londrigan is ECU-endorsed and is rejecting corporate PAC money.

According to WCIA reporter Mark Maxwell, longtime Illinois Republian Party staffer, Nick Klitzing, impersonated a college student on the call while “ambushing his rival, peppering her with questions, all in an attempt to undermine her pledge to serve people instead of companies.”

Congressman Davis has refused to comment on or condemn this desperate, dirty trick despite multiple attempts by WCIA to get his response.

“Impersonating a college student in order to lob false partisan attacks is dirty politics and shows how low Rodney Davis’ campaign is willing to sink,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “Rodney Davis opposed the most transformative anti-corruption legislation since Watergate and can’t defend his record, so he’s sending other people to make false attacks. Rodney Davis should condemn these tactics and stop the dirty politics.”

See below for WCIA’s full coverage of the report which aired during both the 6:00 and 10:00 broadcasts:

WCIA News:

“That’s when Davis’ rival, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, was holding a press call together with a campaign finance reform group called End Citizens United. That was supposed to be with reporters only. Or so they thought…. End Citizens United President, Tiffany Muller, who was also on that call was outraged by this stunt… We’ve had no luck after 24 hours getting any statement or any response of any kind or explanation of how they did this, why they did this to ambush that call. ”

WCIA News:

“Veteran reporters and campaign staffers say this crosses a line… Twenty-year veteran reporter Mike Lawrence worked as the Capitol Bureau Chief for places like the Chicago Sun-Times before he became the press secretary for former Governor Jim Edgar. I reached out to him to ask what he thought about this episode and he told me that the deceitful ambush stunt goes beyond the dirty tricks he remembers from back in the day of campaign tricks. And he said this actually goes beyond what he’s seen in his long career.”