So much political mud is flying in South Carolina they may want to change the state bird. Questionable phone calls and accusations of photoshopped pictures are at the top of a growing list of complaints as the state nears the GOP Primary this Saturday.
Candidates behaving badly, that’s nothing new in a state known for bare-knuckle, hard-nosed, nearly anything goes campaigning. But the tactics and tricks can still surprise you. Which is where Schuyler Kropf comes in. He's the political reporter and editor with the Post Courier in Charleston.
The paper has a special page on its website called the Whisper Campaign, where South Carolinians can report anything politically shady they see. Kropf then tries to verify the claims and find out who’s behind the mud. The biggest complaint, he says, without a doubt, is the phone calls.
Robocalls and what’s known as push polls, which seek to change rather than gage opinions. Then, there are the attacks on this candidate or that. Like one call reported Thursday. "They got a call that came to their house and it was completely in Spanish. But you could understand the word Rubio, you could understand Cruz." And one other Spanish word says Kropf, "amnistia, which I guess is Spanish for amnisty."
Kropf and his team are trying to track down who was behind this attack on Cruz and Rubio.
But those two candidates aren’t exactly happy with each other right now. Not after Ted Cruz’s campaign launched the website therealrubiorecord.com.
It’s flashy, and full of claims like Marco Rubio wants to expand the power of the Environmental Protection Agency, that he’s in the pocket of Big Sugar, and the site calls Marco Rubio “the Republican Obama.”
If that wasn’t enough it also features a photo of what appears to be a giddy Rubio staring up at and shaking hands with President Barack Obama. The Rubio campaign says it’s a fake, and that the Florida senator doesn’t own the watch or tie easily seen in the image. The Cruz camp has yet to comment on the provenance of the photo in question.