Rounds Campaign Owes South Dakotans Explanation for Questionable Behavior
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The South Dakota Democratic Party released the following statement from Executive Director Sam Parkinson responding to the story that the campaign of Sen. Mike Rounds went to great lengths to uncover the the identities of those behind anonymous Twitter accounts:
“This report shows the 2014 campaign staff of Sen. Rounds devoting a concerning amount of time and energy in their efforts to unmask those behind anonymous Twitter accounts. More troubling than the undue amount of staff time devoted to these efforts is the fact that campaign staff referred to a ‘team’ at Dakota State University (DSU) that helped them in their efforts to discover the IP addresses of private citizens.
“Given this disturbing possibility, Sen. Rounds and his campaign staff owe the people of South Dakota answers for the following questions:
Were any public employees engaged in campaign activities during work hours?
Were any public employees, including work study students, ordered to aid this or any other campaign activities as part of their work responsibilities?
Were any other public resources used in these efforts, such as state computers or software?
Were any DSU faculty, staff, or administrators aware of these efforts, or give their approval to them?”
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