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- IL-09: Money, Money, Money
TBone sent this in:
A week out from a crowded and contentious Democratic primary in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, Amanda Informed, an online influencer in Florida received an email with an offer: one negative post about candidate Kat Abughazaleh on Instagram and TikTok, for $1,500.
The request, which came from a secretive political organization called Democracy Unmuted, was forwarded to her by Matt Anthes, founder of Advocators, a digital marketing agency focused on politics and advocacy through micro-influencers.
The job offer, reviewed by MS NOW, came with a brief explaining how the group wanted Amanda — who declined to give her real name citing privacy concerns — to post for her roughly 100,000 followers. Democracy Unmuted explained that it wanted creators to “engage voters” and encouraged them “to look past viral personalities and ask real questions about who is running and why.”
The suggested talking points were all focused on Abughazaleh, the youngest candidate and a former journalist for the left-leaning website Media Matters. The offer called for influencers to “highlight more than one” of Abughazaleh’s alleged shortcomings: she was inexperienced, came from a wealthy family, may live with her partner in a different neighborhood and is too new to the area to serve.
“Kat’s campaign appears designed for attention rather than impact,” the brief said.
That last sentence is an encapsulation of the way that old school donor-driven PACs look at the way Democrats should act. It’s a bad thing if a Democratic candidate gets some attention, in an environment where Trump is good at doing one thing better than any politician in recent past: getting attention.
In the video she posted in response, Abughazaleh points out that the influencers were asked to criticize her campaign for opening a “mutual aid hub” in the district. God forbid that a candidate for office, or an elected official, do anything new and innovative in their district offices. Here’s the video:
This blog began because of the lack of fight in the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, when we see some real fight — some group working hard attacking, some real money spent to reach voters where they really are (social media) instead of where the consultants pretend they are (TV) — it’s to fight off a challenge from the left. Whoever is spending to support Daniel Biss knows that if they win this one, he’s installed for life in this heavily Democratic district, and they’re pulling out all the stops. If only that could happen in other campaigns where the stakes are more than just maintaining the status quo, and if only it could happen when the opponent is a Republican.
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