Long Campaign Refuses To Play By The Rules They Agreed To Play By

The first rule in Jeff Roe's playbook is agree to agree to play by all the rules. The second rule is to ignore the first rule. That's why you got to fight fire with fire and play by his rules.

Bungalow Bill has the story:

The rules of the Springfield, Missouri Chamber of Commerce forum were straight forward. Chamber of Commerce members only and no filming or recording the event. That didn't stop Billy Long's campaign from sending one of Long's young handlers to the event.

The campaign member quickly whipped out a video camera, and he was pointed out by candidate Eckersley. The Chamber of Commerce members asked him to put the camera away.

So Billy Long's campaign sent a representative to the a forum no members of the Long campaign was invited to. Remember, Billy Long made the Chamber dates for these forums impossible to settle on in order to stand face to face with Eckersley as his campaign breaks the rules to get an edge on Eckersley. Then the campaign member pulled a camera out knowing that cameras and recorders weren't allowed. Finally, he stayed at the meeting knowing he wasn't invited. Witnesses say he left quickly when the event was over.

The Eckersley campaign said the forum was very positive and there was good interaction between Chamber members and Scott Eckersley.

Once again, we see Billy Long wiggle out of an uncontrolled event for safer refuge, only to break the rules, which is something Long seems quite good at, to get an advantage. Both candidates were explained the rules when they accepted their solo dates for a forum that was originally supposed to have both candidates present. As well, Billy Long hates when he is tracked, but obviously has no problem playing the tracker game.

If you remember, the Missouri State College Republicans escorted me out for trying to ask Billy a question about a campaign contribution he made to a career politician (see video below). It's funny to see how Billy Long plays the game by creating a disturbance and dealing with a disturbance all to his advantage. Also notice while Eckersley called the tracker out for breaking the rules, he didn't force the tracker to leave.