Hutchison's Web site wanted "rick perry gay" googlers to hit upon her site as she challenges the incumbent governor in next year's re-election challenge.
An attempt to use automatically generated lists of popular Texas gubernatorial search terms in the meta-data of the site to bring more visitors to the Web site of Gov. Rick Perry’s primary challenger, current Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, resulted in inclusion of the phrase “rick perry gay.”
This search engine optimization gone wild was picked up at Talking Points Memo, where Josh then promoted it on the front page as such:
First major embarrassment of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign: the Austin American-Statesman found ‘keywords’ on her new campaign website suggesting Gov. Rick Perry (R) might be gay.
Two, somewhat contradictory, points. First, as the Statesman made clear, there were “more than 2,200 hidden phrases” used to pull in visitors. They published the list here, and — as Josh is aware this was all about search engine optimization — it’s a bit of a stretch to say that the site was “suggesting” anything other than that people search for lots of things and this must be among them. A sampling of the list:
rick perry yell leader www celebratingtexas celebratingtexas texans protecting our water environment and resources cooper tire texarkana texans for life coalition bruchard nodes ama on tort reform carol strayhorn strayhorn comptroller rick perry campaign contributions carole strayhorn cjd texas texans radio online texas payroll tax rates rick perry governor of texas rick perry governor texas texan independence day rick perry inauguration rick perry inauguration texans for rick perry texans for rick perry rick perry campaign contributors rick perry campaign contributors declaration of texas independence
As this is discussed, look at another of the other terms: “kay bailey hutchison abortion.” I don’t think Hutchison is suggesting that she had an abortion, right? To say that the campaign was suggesting Perry is gay is misleadingly reading motive into the minds of those people whose searches led to the search term showing up on the list.
All that being said, I also think Josh’s is underestimating the Hutchison campaign’s response. His characterization of it as a “major embarrassment” is belied by the response, which is nothing less than some inspired, charmingly biting gay-baiting. Hutchison’s campaign spokesman Jeff Sadosky:
We did not know these offensive word associations were being searched for by hundreds of thousands of Texans everyday nor do we condone the computer-generated existence on our Web site. They will be removed promptly.
Wow. Cutting through the cutesy language, his response was: “We had no idea that hundreds of thousands of Texans are googling daily to figure out whether their governor is gay.”
Maybe that’s a “major embarrassment” — in Josh’s mind — for Hutchison, but I’m willing to bet that the Hutchison folks are laughing it up right now, knowing that — in Texas — the “major embarrassment” to come from such a story is to Perry, not Hutchison.
I think the odds are that the list truly was computer generated and that the campaign wasn’t suggesting anything — but when called out on the phrase’s inclusion decided to have some “fun” with it.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
My first thought was that this was a deliberate attempt to smear Rick Perry. After all, what ends up as the story? That “the internet” thinks Rick Perry is gay – conveniently rehashing “gay rumours” just as Kay Bailey Hutchison enters the race. I wonder who tipped off the American-Statesman.
It’s a dirty tactic, but quite effective. Whoever Hutchison’s strategists are, they’re on their game. Reprehensible, though.
I can’t stand Governuh Goodhair. He really and truly is a horrible person. If a tree stump ran against him, I would vote for the tree stump. Even with that being said, that would not be the way that I would handle smearing his name. There are plenty of things that he has done that she could use as a tactic to get back at him.
I mean really, there’s the secession fiasco, the HPV shot(his good friend manufactures it), the tea party crap, refusing the stimulus funds and then subsequently groveling for some, and now the possible banning of a federal public health care option being offered in Texas.
There is so much dirt on that slimeball, she could honestly dig up other stuff. I really hope that Hutchison’s people made a mistake.