Maine Republican Party Attacks Gamer Senate Candidate

This story first appeared in Politico yesterday, but it's only today that the entire ordeal is getting rounded out. To put it simply, the Republican Party in the State of Main found out that their democratic challenger, Democratic State Senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz, playes World of Warcraft and sends out a scathing email blasting her for “living a time-consuming double life as a member of the World of Warcraft community.” Not only that, but they also go into specific accusations involving her time in WoW as an orc rogue named Santiaga. You can see a graphic from the email above and honestly it looks like something you would find in The Onion.

The attacks didn't just stop at the email, however. The Main Republican Party -and Maine Republican Party spokesman David Sorensen in particular- have also created a downright stalkerish website devoted to tracking Lachowicz's gameplay habits in detail that would probably warrant a restraining order for any normal citizen. Stating "In Colleen's online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments…Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen's fantasy world,” it also pulls in her character profile and numerous messages she has made on the WoW forums. Creepy doesn't even begin to describe it.

Today Colleen Lachowicz has responded to these ludicrous, childish, and downright awful attacks by not only standing up for herself, but the hobby she loves and gamers everywhere in the process.

“I think it’s weird that I’m being targeted for playing online games. Apparently I’m in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games. What’s next? Will I be ostracized for playing Angry Birds or Words with Friends? If so, guilty as charged!”

Lachowicz added, “What’s really weird is that the Republicans are going after my hobbies instead of talking about their record while they’ve been running Augusta for the last two years. Instead of talking about what they’re doing for Maine people, they’re making fun of me for playing video games. Did you know that more people over the age of 50 play video games than under the age of 18? As a gamer, I’m in good company with folks like Jodie Foster, Vin Diesel, Mike Myers, and Robin Williams. Maybe it’s the Republican Party that is out of touch.”

“Out of touch” is one way to put it. I might add that they are acting like “Sniveling child-bullies who are so out of touch with the current state of the world that I'm surprised they can talk without choking on their own spit, or maybe they're just too busy setting up secrete rendezvous on Grindr during Church homilies to really understand the world around them ”...but that's just me.