BILLINGS — U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Curtis had just announced her plan for higher education reforms and was about to head to a lunch meeting with veterans when she ducked down a hall toward the women’s restroom at Montana State University in Billings.
A strange political dance unfolded in the Democrat’s wake: As a “tracker” — a political operative from the opposing party armed with a video camera __ sought to record Curtis’ every move, the candidate’s father and a campaign aide scrambled to block the tracker’s view with campaign signs.
When tracker Brian O’Leary, who works for the conservative America Rising PAC, quickened his step to catch up to Curtis, her father and the aide kept pace. When O’Leary raised his camera high, the campaign signs went up, too. And when Curtis emerged from the restroom minutes later, the odd choreography continued out to the parking lot, where O’Leary finally relented after Curtis got into a vehicle.
The presence of trackers in high-profile political races is nothing new; Democrats have their own to shadow Curtis’ Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Steve Daines. Yet the level of antagonism between Curtis’ campaign and her tracker stands out.
It has become campaign policy to block O’Leary when he attempts to record Curtis or could be interfering with an event, spokesman Les Braswell said Friday.
Candidates across the nation have been frustrated and angered since the practice has become more common over the years. In 2006, Sen. George Allen of Virginia lost his re-election bid after he used the derogatory term “macaca” to describe a tracker who was following him.
Daines’ tracker also has picked up a reputation for determination that borders on the aggressive, most notably when he attempted to sneak into the state GOP convention in June through the kitchen at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center, said Montana Republican Party Executive Director Bowen Greenwood.
Curtis told The Associated Press that the unusual blocking efforts by her supporters were a distraction necessitated by O’Leary’s increasingly aggressive behavior.
“I was recently at the Labor Day picnic in Great Falls and he was going so far as trying to position himself in between a voter and myself,” she said. “I appreciate a little bubble. We all have this personal space, and I deserve mine.”
Run-ins similar to what happened in Billings have occurred elsewhere, including Thursday in Helena. Curtis made an eight-minute speech about her jobs plan, then took reporters into a nearby business for a question-and-answer session, where she acknowledged she wanted to hold the news conference in a private location to keep the tracker away.
He was waiting for her when she emerged, and walked alongside, camera rolling, as Curtis headed to a parking garage to leave.
In video posted on YouTube, Curtis, a 34-year-old high school math teacher and state Representative making her first run for statewide office, described her run-ins with O’Leary as a “different world” than she’s used to.
O’Leary declined comment. America Rising spokesman Jeff Bechdel said the Arlington, Virginia-based group has trackers following 50 key House and Senate races across the U.S. Bechdel would not directly address Curtis’ assertions about O’Leary, but he said the trackers are “by and large just a fly on the wall trying to capture the event.”