The Week on Politwoops: Challengers delete a cruise ship, an omnibus bus and more
It’s time to wrap up the week with a review of the most notable deleted tweets from politicians caught by our Politwoops project.
The campaign account for David Craig, a Republican candidate for governor in Maryland, sent a tweet that was later deleted about his running mate for lieutenant governor that read, “Jeannie Haddaway is in Annapolis tonight at a meeting of the Maryland Fireman’s Association!” The tweet included the photo seen to the right and was deleted without any other mention or photo of the meeting with the Fireman’s Association. The image of the Carnival Conquest cruise ship was taken more than three years ago on November 3, 2010 and comes from an Ow.ly account belonging to a user named “retrodiva.”
Following the passage of the omnibus legislation this week Shane Osborn, a Nebraska Republican candidate for Senate, shared a tweet that read “Senate passed Omnibus is a short bus to nowhere” and linked to a statement on his campaign website. The phrase “short bus” refers to the smaller school buses used to accommodate students with physical or mental disabilities and is often used in a derogatory fashion. The tweet was deleted after only 19 seconds, but not before it was noticed by Jordan Gehrke, a senior advisor to Ben Sasse who is Osborn’s opponent in the primary, who tweeted “Agree, awful bill but mocking special needs kids?” and a pastor in Virginia who responded “A “conservative” Senate candidate should respect all children.”
Rick Weiland, a South Dakota Democrat running for Senate, deleted a tweet from his campaign account on the night of January 15th that read “Thank you…” and hasn’t tweeted anything since. To catch other peculiar deleted messages, we’ve diligently added dozens of new challengers this week including Ed Gillespie, a Republican Senate challenger in Virginia, Shenna Bellows, a Democratic Senate challenger in Maine and John Walsh, a Democratic Senate challenger in Montana.