The Non-Partisan Association, fighting to come from behind, has hired Campaign Research Inc. to help out with the crucial job of voter ID in this election. My Globe story here, but there is lots of interesting reading from back east about CR and its role in the Rob Ford campaign.
This Maclean’s article (which CR proudly links to on its own site) details the strategies of one of the company’s principals, Nick Kouvalis, in that campaign, including his role in the creation of a fictitious Twitter account that played a part in the campaign. Here’s another, from the Toronto Star, which had quite a fractious relationship with the Ford campaign and Kouvalis.
Sadly, the NPA here assures me that Mr. Kouvalis won’t be playing that kind of role in the local campaign. Too bad — it sounds like he’d inject a lot of life into the local battle, which is so far rather boring.
To this point: A news release a day from the NPA camp denouncing Gregor Robertson, with the same three sins (he’s responsible for the riot, he’s wasting money on growing wheat, he’s hiding things from you) recycled over and over. On the other side, blindingly cheery tweets from the mayor’s office about the kudos for some new initiative on open data or electric cars or green-job creation.