Geoff Simpson and His Sock Puppets

Democratic state legislator Geoff Simpson is fighting against Republican Mark Hargrove for election in the 47th District.

Democrats recently slimed Hargrove, falsely implying he was not good on combatting sex offenders just because a sex offender contributed to his campaign.

There have been three people online coming out in support of Simpson on these matters, though. A couple of posts from someone named "ReadIt&Weep," and some more from "Just Wonderin'," and even one from someone named "Covington Republican."

"ReadIt&Weep" entered his email address as "molester@markhargrove.org." Charming. "Just Wonderin'" entered his address as "lies@pudgeisaliar.com." Both of them directly supported the claims made by the Democrats against Hargrove.

"Covington Republican" says Hargrove "seems like a real dunderhead. Nothing he said made much sense," and that "I won't vote for Simpson but I damn sure won't vote for Hargrove either."

What do all three of these posters have in common, other than attacking Hargrove?

They happen to share an IP address -- 71.231.253.145, a Comcast address -- that replied on Friday to an email sent to geoff.simpson@comcast.net (the same address listed by the House Democrats for his campaign).

Oops.

There is no mistaking it: these characters above are all Geoff Simpson, or someone very close to him in his campaign.

(The fourth post by "Just Wonderin'" was sent via an anonymizer ... sorry, Geoff, you're too late to hide your address, you've already been caught. The first was from 18.246.1.160, which resolves to an MIT student from Vashon, Tyler Williams. I have no idea what connection he has to Simpson.)

I don't really mind too much that Simpson is calling me a liar. I've been called worse.

I also couldn't care much less about people anonymously supporting the candidates of their choice ... even if it is themselves. Although, I would hope that public officials could be more forthcoming, even during campaigns.

But it's pretty low to invent an email address called "molester@markhargrove.org," apparently implying that Hargrove either IS a molester, or has molesters in his campaign. Maybe that wasn't the intent, but it sure seems like it.

However, there's no mistaking the intent, ladies and gentlemen, when your 47th District Representative, Geoff Simpson, is actually pretending to be a disaffected Republican voter who is against both Hargrove AND Simpson (and he has the gall to accuse me of lying!).

The stench of deception and desperation run deeply in that one, my friends.