'Tracker' dogs Senate candidate Ricketts ("Matt Matt the Democrat.")

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1673&u_sid=2263215

Published Wednesday
October 18, 2006

'Tracker' dogs Senate candidate

BY CINDY GONZALEZ


WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

He's become a big follower of U.S. Senate candidate Pete Ricketts, trailing the GOP hopeful to parades, picnics and statewide campaign stops.

And he isn't even a Republican.

Ricketts' campaign staff has nicknamed the tag-along "Matt Matt the Democrat."

In the political world, the young, mild-mannered Matt is known as a "tracker," a hired hand who doggedly pursues a candidate with video camera in tow, taping the candidate's moves and remarks for review by the opposing camp.

Both Democratic and Republican leaders say tracking is a tactic used routinely by many campaigns to look for inconsistencies and blunders.

"This is just a common practice these days where there are people on both sides tracking each other's movements and actions and words," said Marcia Cady, a spokeswoman for Ricketts' opponent, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson.

The Nebraska Democratic Party confirmed that Matt Schaub is on its payroll as a tracker. Executive Director Barry Rubin said Schaub's purpose is mainly to record events organized by the competition.

Rubin's GOP counterpart, Tiffiny Carlton, said the Nebraska Republican Party does not employ any trackers, although Rubin and Cady say they have seen Republicans taping and following Democratic candidates.

"We have definitely seen Republican operatives at our events doing the same thing," Rubin said.

Atlhough tracking is not new, a tracker's tools today are easier to tote - and Internet advances, such as video-hosting site YouTube.com, allow material to be quickly launched into cyberspace.


Matt Schaub at a recent political event in southeast Nebraska. Despite his mission to help Sen. Ben Nelson, Schaub at times speaks with Nelson's challenger, Pete Ricketts.

FULL story reg req at link above.