St. Albert Coun. Cam MacKay denied any involvement in byelection candidate Bob Russell’s campaign Friday morning – and then retracted that denial – after questions arose regarding Russell’s political Twitter account.
On Thursday evening, speculation arose as to the author of candidate Bob Russell’s @VoteBobRussell twitter account when Mackay’s personal twitter account replied with “look forward to it” to a social media exchange between Russell and Neil Korotash, a former two-term councillor.
When questioned by Korotash about looking forward to what – MacKay’s account tweeted back “trying to do with bob sorry.” Korotash then asked if MacKay was running Russell’s account for him and received no reply. MacKay hadn’t been tagged initially in the conversation but due to the public nature of the tweets could have easily seen fit to chime in from his own account.
Interviewed Friday, Russell said he was not sure he had a Twitter account, but had been aware some of his campaign volunteers were handling various social media outlets.
“I know Cam has because he’s phoned me, and he said I’ve responded to something,” Russell said, noting the councillor asked about some tweets that had been claiming Russell still had cancer and questioning why he was running. Russell is now clear of cancer and gave MacKay clearance to respond.
Russell confirmed that many of the tweets did accurately represent his views and facts about him – like that he was a welterweight boxing champion – were true.
“Yes, I’m aware (Cam) was answering for me, yes he did contact me. I told him if it’s my policy statement out of the book, you can answer without checking with me, why bother. He’s smart enough, I think, to know he can’t be speaking for me without my OK on it,” Russell said.
He confirmed MacKay has been helping out with his campaign.
The @VoteBobRussell account uses one of Russell’s campaign signs as its photo, and has been interacting with people in the first person. The account’s profile doesn’t have any biographical information nor other information indicating tweets are being handled by the campaign.
MacKay, when first contacted on Friday morning said, “No, I’m not” when asked if he was running Russell’s Twitter account and repeated the same answer when asked if he was helping on Russell’s campaign.
He said the message of “look forward to it” on Thursday night had been an attempt to send a direct message – a private note on Twitter – to Russell, who told the Gazette he does not personally use Twitter.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing Bob get elected, but I’m not going to come out and endorse anybody or stuff like that,” MacKay said.
The Gazette contacted Russell again and Russell confirmed that MacKay was definitely involved with his campaign and would no longer do any tweeting for him.
“I know now who it’s been over the last two or three days, but it’s a private citizen. Cam did some on there and then I think he had the same feeling I did, this is a little too close, how would it be viewed,” Russell said. When asked if MacKay had been tweeting the previous night, Russell said he hadn’t asked MacKay.
“I don’t know because I didn’t ask him, he could have been. But as of this morning, he’s no longer twittering for me,” Russell said. Both MacKay and Coun. Sheena Hughes are supporting his campaign, he said. He wasn’t sure why MacKay had denied his involvement.
MacKay called back after the Gazette had this conversation with Russell.
“I’ve got to clarify something, I wasn’t truthful with you before. I have helped Bob out a little bit and I’ve helped other candidates out a little bit, but I really don’t want to be publicly endorsing anybody in the paper and I want the voters just to make up their own minds on this stuff,” MacKay said.
He said he’s helped put up signs for other candidates, including Russell, Natalie Mikus and Hughena Burke, and has offered advice.
MacKay said he denied involvement with Russell because he didn’t want to overshadow the campaign and because as a councillor he would have to work with whomever is elected, he said.
He said he has done some social media monitoring for Russell’s campaign.
“He’s got many people on his campaign team that look at it, and I provided advice and answered questions to difficult topics. One of the people that has worked on that is Lisa, my other half, but I haven’t really had anything to do with tweeting out, but I have looked at the responses and stuff,” he said.
