Will The Real Steve Filson Staffer Please Stand Up?

For several weeks now, frequent commenter $.02 has been hypothesizing that fellow commenter Rick is indeed Steve Filson’s campaign manager Rob Kellar. A few days ago, in an open thread discussing the first quarter FEC filings, $.02 stretched his wings a bit further by suggesting that commenter Some Other Guy might actually be Filson Finance Director Colin Bishopp, of these5janks notoriety. All this speculation took place in the wake of the following comment in that thread by Some Other Guy:

First, I'll start off with addressing the "overhead". This is a tough district to win - and, as was pointed out, a very large district. Filson was and is right to secure the services and knowledge of some political pros. However, while the money he is paying his consultants is right on, the money he is paying his staff is rather off (this is all based on my dicussions [sic] with a friend who works on campaigns, his past work has included the Dean campaign in Iowa). According to him, the only salary that makes sense is that of the Field Director. The Campaign Manager and Finance Director, especially because of their experience, i.e. lack of it (at least according to what I have heard), are WAY too high. Most Campaign Managers and Finance Directors in a primary, and with their lack of experience, are not paid near that amount. The only staffer who should be paid a high amount on the Filson campaign is the Field Director, since she is the one who comes into this with federal level campaign experience, contested primary experience, DCCC campaign experience, and so forth. Also, interesting to note that it is the woman with a family (despite having the most experience) that is paid the least. Additionally, I suppose that does tell us something about just where Filson puts "grassroots" in the scheme of things.

(I suppose I should note that I have been fed a lot of info about the Filson Field Director from my Dean campaign friend. He knows her and speaks incredibly highly of her abilities. He also mentioned that she was offered Finance Director and Campaign Manager positions, offering a lot more money, in other states but turned them down for family reasons. I suppose I should also note that I have heard nothing but negative comments about the Filson Campaign Manager and have heard that the DCCC is looking to replace him. Some of his own staff, some staff at the DNC, and some staff at the DCCC consider him to be a liability.)

All that being said, I think Filson has the best chance to win this thing. While all of you sit here and bash his lack of "grassroots", it is the Filson campaign, thanks to his underpaid and over-experienced Field Director that is out there RIGHT NOW and every other day and night calling and canvassing voters. I'm on the volunteer list for both campaigns (signed up for McNerney before I ever heard of Filson) and the Filson campaign is doing a hell of a lot more than the McNerney campaign. When it comes to voter contact, the Filson campaign seems to have McNerney beat. (And my Dean campaign friend says that McNerney should be afraid.)

On the issue of support from labor and Dem clubs.... Just what are the unions and Dem clubs doing for McNerney? From what I have heard, they are all focused on local stuff and won't lift a finger for this race until after the primary. Also, Filson has AFSCME - that's a big endsorement [sic]. And Filson's political endorsements (Congressman Miller, Congresswoman Lofgren) have been out there doing a lot of stuff for Filson. I don't know, maybe it's just me and what I've been seeing, but it seems like Filson is more the grassroots candidate than McNerney. But, I'm sure no one here would ever dare admit that or even admit to the fact that Filson is running a strong grassroots field program.

On the issue of this poll that was paid for in January. According to my Dean friend, that probably means the poll isn't yet done or was completed only recently. Polling is paid for up front, but then there is a lot of work to be done on the front end and back end before a campaign receives the polling results. So a payment in January should indicate a poll that is completed sometime in April (or so I've been told). In other words, let's not jump to any conclusions about this poll not showing good results for Filson and that's why no one has heard about it.

Sure, Filson didn't deliver what he had indicated he could deliver. But, from my understanding anyways, he still has raised more, at least at this point, than any other Democratic candidate vying for this same seat has.

So exactly who is Some Other Guy? Well, to assist SNTP readers, I’ve found a handy mathematical formula for determining the real identity of the Filson staffer posting in the Comments section.

A) Tabulate each gratuitous snotty remark Some Other Guy has made about the McNerney campaign over time (e.g., “Oh, and word on the street is that Howard Dean wants McNerney to drop out of this race”) and then multiply by 7.23. Then locate all the examples of blatant dissembling about DCCC involvement in Filson’s campaign (e.g., “Does anyone here actually know the extent of the DCCC's and DC hierarchy's involvement in the Filson campaign? Based on my past experiences with the DCCC, I'm guessing it is little to none”) and multiply by .7185. Add the totals for these two categories.

B) Locate each aggrandizing descriptor of Filson's field director in the comment quoted above, multiply the total by 13. Then locate each slashing criticism of any other Filson staffer and multiply that number by 16.5. Calculate the sum for these two categories and then divide by 39.357. Pay careful attention to this step; it is critical to your calculation.

C) Take all examples of lying about background material in order to maintain secrecy and/or build credentials, and cube that number. Then add 1,372 to your total for each occurrence of multiple examples in the same sentence (e.g., “[T]his is all based on my dicussions [sic] with a friend [cough] who works on campaigns, his [cough] past work has included the Dean [cough, Edwards] campaign in Iowa”). Finally, take the square root of your total.

Now, with your constants established, you are ready to apply my formula



and take the final steps to correctly determine the identity of the Filson staff member who is commenting here under the pseudonym Some Other Guy.

Now that you have solved for all the numerical values, simply translate them into binary code and feed that data into your Diebold Prestidigitator 3000™ tabulator and -- presto -- you will know the identity of the mystery Filson staffer with 99.99287% certainty. Happy sleuthing!

Tags: CA-11, Steve Filson, staff