Merkley staffer grabs the goods and gets caught

In a race where each candidate’s supporters have often been verbose and vehement (note discussion threads on Blue Oregon and Loaded Orygun over the past several months), campaign staffers, such as Hayes Ingraham, have gone one step above and beyond proclamations and verbal taunting.

Ingraham, 22, Jeff Merkley’s U.S. Senate campaign’s most recent hire, harkened back to the tried and true political hijinks of a bygone, pre-technology era, when he walked into Steve Novick’s territory several days ago.

Using an alias, he sought to procure the opponent’s campaign ‘goods,’ (which included a bumper sticker and a remit form) and to check in on what materials Novick was publically distributing.

“This just came to light, he never should have done this, it was an error in judgment,” Canter said, also noting that Ingraham violated the code of conduct all of Merkley’s staff is required to sign at the time they are brought on.

“This is not behavior that lives up to the standard Jeff Merkley has for himself or his campaign,” Canter continued.

Merkley’s staffer is not the only one to have infiltrated the opposition in some way; Henry Kraemer, Deputy Outreach Coordinator for the Novick campaign, was caught editing Jeff Merkley’s Wikipedia page back in January.

Ingraham will be remaining with the campaign, and has apologized to both candidates. Kraemer also proffered a timely apology on Witigonian.