Democratic National Committee officials sounded alarm bells after the Washington Examiner began gathering the names of convention delegates, newly leaked internal emails show.
Over the course of several months, this news organization gathered the names of all 4,767 Democratic delegates and 2,472 Republican delegates and has published them in souvenir editions of its magazine in Cleveland and Philadelphia.
It initially also sought their emails for inclusion in delegate directories at the back of each magazine, but abandoned this effort after questions arose during the fraught primary season about possible intimidation of delegates by the supporters of rival candidates.
The months-long effort was intended as a service to delegates that would make the magazines more attractive to readers and advertisers. But it was treated with suspicion and obstruction by the DNC.
Officials contacted each other, suggesting they ignore and obstruct the Examiner because it is a conservative news outlet.
Hacked Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks show DNC officials refused to respond to two Examiner journalists who contacted the organization.
On April 5, digital editor Madeleine Morgenstern contacted Leigh Appleby, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Democratic Party, seeking guidance about getting delegates’ names. A follow-up email was sent May 10 after the first went unanswered.
“OK, this is sketchy. Anyone else seen this Washington Examiner request from other state parties?” Shu-Yen Wei, a regional press secretary for the DNC, wrote to several of her colleagues on May 10, shortly after Appleby had forwarded her Morgenstern’s follow-up email.
“I can send an alert to the state parties not to respond to this inquiry. Examiner is a right wing rag,” wrote DNC Deputy Communications Director Eric Walker.
Walker proceeded to notify communications officers within Democratic state parties to ignore the Examiner’s request, writing in an email blast: “Hey everybody – heads up. Someone named Madeleine Morgenstern with the Washington Examiner (a right-wing rag based in DC) has been emailing the DNC and state parties asking for a list of delegates and their personal/contact information. We do not provide personal information or contact information about delegates, especially not to right-wing media outlets. We would advise you to ignore this inquiry.”
“FYI. A Ryan Lovelace has been doing it too from the Examiner. Same pitch,” added Drew Anderson of the Indiana Democratic Party. Lovelace, a campaign reporter, had sent a separate request to Anderson seeking the names of Indiana delegates.
“We are with you!” responded Ann Gooding, a communications director for the Rhode Island Democrats.
In a separate email, Idaho Democratic Party spokesman Dean Ferguson wrote that he’d been “prodded” for the names of Idaho delegates by Morgenstern on April 8.
“Ignored her because I didn’t see an upside to giving that rotten newspaper a way to profit off Dems,” Ferguson wrote to Walker.
Ferguson nevertheless acknowledged that the Examiner‘s plan was a good one, asking if other “ancillary ‘collector’s edition’ publications might be legit.”
“I am thinking that our delegates may like to be in one of those… You know how people like to see their names in print,” he added.
Despite the DNC’s guidance to state parties to ignore future requests, the Examiner was able to obtain the names of all delegates to this week’s convention in Philadelphia (just as it did with Republicans in Cleveland). The special magazine issue featuring the names will be available at the convention beginning Monday.
A spokesperson for the DNC did not return a request for comment.
