Bill Sali Staffer Blogs Anonymously?

There are probably as many reasons for blogging anonymously as there are anonymous bloggers.  Some reasons might include fear of retaliation or retribution.  Others might include protecting a job, a family member or a family member's job.  Why a staff member of a U.S. Congressman would blog anonymously is a question not easily answered.

Some questions that can be easily answered are:

• Does the staff of an elected official have an ethical obligation for complete disclosure?   
• Are there situations where anonymity by a public official might be acceptable and others where it might not?
• Should the public's expectations include identity disclosure by the staff of an elected official when the blogging includes advocating for that official or his policies?
• If a congressional staffer is blogging using government time and resources, should that information be made public.

Most people would answer "yes" to all of those.  So why is a staffer for Idaho Congressman Bill Sali apparently blogging anonymously at The Idahoan?  Let's see what we can find out.

Verifying who registered the domain name can tell us a lot.

Checking NetworkSolutions' WHOIS feature reveals that the domain name, THEIDAHOAN.COM, was registered through GoDaddy.com on Dec. 27, 2006.  The registrant is listed as The Idahoan with a residential address on Fern Street in Nampa, Idaho. 

The registration also indicates that the administrative and technical contact for the domain is Bridget Barrus at the same Fern Street address in Nampa with email address of hoffmail@.... 

Bridget Barrus is a former staffer of Idaho Senator Larry Craig and has been involved with many community organizations including Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families and Community Transportation Association of Idaho.  However according to Switchboard.com, and the local phone book, she lives at an address on West Antietam Ct. in Boise.

Who resides at the Nampa Fern Street address?

According to Switchboard.com, the address is listed to a K. Hoffman.  A public records search confirms that the address belongs to Wayne and Kimberly Hoffman.  Yes, that Wayne Hoffman.

Wayne Hoffman, a long time journalist most recently with the Idaho Statesman, is currently the communications director for Idaho Congressman Bill Sali, a post that he took in March of this year.  Prior to that he was a management specialist at the Idaho Dept. of Education, given that position Jan. 2 by newly-elected Superintendent Tom Luna.

Last year he was Tom Luna's campaign director during the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction and he was also a consultant for Bill Sali's congressional campaign that year.  He did both while employed as a special assistant to the director at the Idaho Department of Agriculture.  During the campaign, one of Luna's primary opponents, Steve Smylie, pointed out that Hoffman may have been campaigning on state time, an accusation that Hoffman denied.  [The link is a copy of the cached version of an Idaho Press-Tribune article.  The Boise Weekly also has a good report.]

So the address provided when The Idahoan was registered just happens to be the address of Wayne Hoffman who is now a Sali staffer.  That doesn't necessarily prove that Hoffman is the blogger at The Idahoan but it does prove that he's at least connected.  It also raises the question of why Hoffman's name wasn't used on the registration.

I suppose if you've already been accused of using government time for campaigning and other political purposes you'd be a little shy about having your name associated with a political blog...maybe? 

So what is The Idahoan all about anyway?

A June entry marking the 100th posting points out the blog's objective. 

We hope to build it into a news source that will one day rival that of the mainstream media. Our dream is to have a team of reporters and contributors who can spread the message of small government, lower taxes and the power of individuals and the family. It is important that we all stay engaged. These are the days, months and years that will determine whether conservative politics has a future in Idaho. There is a significant liberal beachhead that has established itself here in Idaho. Can we push it back? This is our state and our values. We have the opportunity to shape the future.

Most of the content is pretty typical of an Idaho conservative blog.  Early childhood education, closed primaries and the community college are hot topics.  There are postings on Tom Luna, including one on Luna's budget that was posted while Hoffman was employed with the education department.  There are also posts on Bill Sali, including one defending his vote against increasing Federal enforcement of dog and cockfighting, written while Hoffman was on Sali's staff.

There is even an entry where the author takes issue with a blog posting by the Idaho Statesman's Kevin Richert regarding Wayne Hoffman's view of pre-k.

Reading through the posts, which are written with a certain journalistic style, lends one to believe that they could be written by a former news reporter.  Is it Hoffman?  There's a pretty good chance that it is. 

Then for an interesting twist, check this out.  Look at the RSS feed of the blog.  You can see that at least some of the content was posted on weekdays during working hours.  So that would be on government time.  Hmmm, sound familiar?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with blogging anonymously, I'm doing it myself after all, but there are at least ethical problems when that person is a staff member of an elected official.  If Congressman Sali's communication director, Wayne Hoffman, is blogging at The Idahoan, apparently on government time and with government resources, he has an obligation to disclose that information to the public.

[Full disclosure:  I am not now nor have I ever been on the staff of an elected official.  I have never been employed by a candidate or campaign.  I have never been elected to any office higher than high school student body vice president.  I have donated to just two political campaigns in my life, the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry and the 2006 congressional campaign of Larry Grant.  My grandfather, a Republican, was a prominent Boise city councilman in the 70's and I am related to a powerful Republican state senator, who btw has no idea that I blog.  The Idaho Democratic party didn't even know I existed until a few months ago.  Oh...and I currently have one dog and one cat whose political affiliations remain a mystery.  I guess that's everything then, except to say thanks to a reader for providing the tip.]

Comments

[Sisyphus]

Excellent work. Wayne? Any response?

[Rob]

Wow. That is some good investigative work. I too am looking forward to the response. Thanks.

[Julie Fanselow]

Excellent reportage, MG.

As the writer of one of Idaho's oldest blogs - and as a paid staffer for two campaigns (Larry Grant last year; Larry LaRocco at present) - I have been very careful to tell people who pays my way.

As far as I'm concerned, Hoffman has the right to blog anonymously as a citizen during his "off" hours. (And we as his fellow citizens also have the right to know he's doing this, given his day job, so thanks.)

But if he's blogging anonymously on a political site from a government facility (even on a personal computer) during typical work hours, he's stepped over a line.

[IdahoRocks]

Once again, MG, you prove to be one great investigative reporter! Is is Hoffman? On government time? Well, I am biased, given how many times I've found Republicans clearly involved in unscrupulous behavior, and so, I err on the side of believing that Hoffman may well be committing a big NO-NO! Of course the quote about "small government, lower taxes and [emphasis on families]" was enough to make me gag, given how Republicans have raised taxes by giving tax cuts to the rich, built up the single largest big government dictatorship since Hitler took over Germany, and whose emphasis on the family seems to also involve the likes of inviting male homosexual prostitute Gannon into the Washington Press Corps., and White House!, and giving him priority over senior Washington Press Corps member Helen Thomas. Geez, if that's not a bunch of slimey Republican values I don't know what is. So, I remain skeptical of Republican innocence....

[Bubblehead]

Good investigative work, MG!

IdahoRocks -- what do you have against male homosexuals? Both you and morialekafa seem to be implying that male homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to be part of the DC press corps with your constant references to Gannon. And I'm pretty sure that China was a bigger government dictatorship that started up since 1933 than the current U.S. government.

[Adam Graham]

MGR, the time stamps shouldn't be taken to prove anything. Most blogging software allows you to edit the time stamp. I often blog ahead posts the night before or I'll a post in the morning and it will appear in the afternoon. I'll also advise you that Congressional staff don't have jobs that can be described as 9-5 in any sense of the word, and are not always "in the office." (particularly when we're talking about a press aide) and there are numerous ways of accessing the Internet without the use of government computers.

The substance of the story, I won't comment on. I respect all of our Idaho Conservative bloggers and trust that everything will be addressed by the Idahoan appropriately and in due time.

[chris]

What I find amusing is that he seems to label Press Releases as "Guest Posts", like Craig or Simpson actually cares that some guy has a website in Idaho.

Kind of reminds me of the whole "Grassroots GOP" thingy; these people would really be helped by the employment of a dictionary.

[MountainGoat]

Well Adam, I wouldn't expect anything else from you. Also, thanks for the lesson on time-stamps and the work habits of press aides...very enlightening.

Really now, that bucket has to be getting pretty heavy about now, no?

------
Really appreciate the acknowledgement everyone; my hat's off to the tipster, though.

[Adam Graham]

My knowledge of the employment habits of Congressional Aides from a combination of experience with said aides and study of their job.

[MountainGoat]

Uh, okay....

[sharon fisher]

Hoffman also headed up or was spokesman for Young Republicans while he was working for the state in Ag, which I thought was pretty dicey of him.

[MountainGoat]

Yep Sharon, he's currently the vice chairman. I had to laugh when I checked out the Idaho YP website. They have a page with a bunch of links but the only blog listed is The Idahoan.

http://www.idahoyr.us/Links.html

[W. Lane Startin]

Ah, nothing like creative use of whois and online directories. Great work!

[Alan]

Nice work MG. I love this kind of stuff. Wish I could do it.

I was looking over the rss feed link and saw the email address of hoffmail@cableone.net. Another clue that Hoffman is behind The Idahoan.

[IdahoRocks]

Just to clarify for Bubblehead, I have nothing against male homosexuals (or any other homosexual) but the Republican and Bush administration hypocrisy when it comes to gay rights and family values should be exposed for what it is. Also, prostitution is illegal in D.C. no matter who participates. And in the White House, no less! Give me a break....

[Bubblehead]

Kevin Richert has some info he found out: http://www.idahostatesman.com/richert/story/123153.html . Hoffman admits he registered the domain name, and contributes, but implies there are others who also contribute. Interestingly, all the posts are by someone logging in as "The Editor", which means that either all the contributors have the same log-in (unlikely), or Mr. Hoffman just lied to (or "mislead") Kevin Richert.

[MountainGoat]

Yeah, I just saw that...very interesting.

[news junkie]

It will be interesting to see how Hoffman digs out of this one.

Sali should demand full disclosure of what's going on.

[Sisyphus]

So what do we know about this guy from these facts? He knowingly flirts with his ethical obligations. Whether he was writing obviously biased pieces on Democrats when he was a Statesman reporter, compromised his governmental job duties by advocating for not one, but two, Republican campaigns, or provides content anonymously while spokesperson for your Congressman. He seems to know where the lines are and gets as close as he can.

This raises many other questions. Has he crossed a line? Does he plant stories anonymously only to get confirmation for a plan of action by his boss from the very story he planted? That's precisely what the administration did in validating the Iraq War decision and WMDs. Libby dines with Judy Miller, gives her anonymous tips about WMDs, the story is published citing senior government officials, and the next day Cheney is quoting the New York Times confirming there are WMDs in Iraq. Its time we got back to a reality based media and enforcing these ethical rules would be a good first step. But the bigger overarching question is why would any government leader keep someone who draws such scrutiny?

[Bubblehead]

Sisyphus might have a good point, except for the fact that Rep. Sali really doesn't have any power whatsoever as a bomb-throwing freshman in the minority party. So what if he chooses a "plan of action" based on something his press secretary wrote in a blog? He'll still be on the losing end of a 411-8 vote even if he follows that "plan of action". (Sorry, but I'm just chuckling at the concept of Congressman Sali putting together a "plan of action" as if whatever he does means anything in the grand scheme of things.)

[Bubblehead]

Mr. Hoffman is offering to answer questions over at HBO: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo/archive.asp?postID=16664#more

I asked the first one.

[sharon fisher]

I looked over The Idahoan and noticed one entry (http://theidahoan.com/2007/07/15/psst-can-you-help-me-fool-the-public-thanks-much-.aspx ) making reference to repeated changes to Bill Sali's Wikipedia entry. If you go look at the entry, it's almost laughably one-sided, and if you click the discussion tab, there's a long, long (more than six month) history of some anonymous person going in and taking out anything negative. Is this Hoffman as well?

Traditionally, Wikipedia has frowned on this sort of whitewashing, to the extent of disallowing Congressional addresses from editing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302610_pf.html).

[MountainGoat]

Good point Sharon. I just briefly looked at that post too but didn't have the time to spend looking in to it.

I'm interested to see if you get any reponse at HB Online.