Privacy and Politics in HD-17

You would have thought, after all this time, Republicans would be good at blanking stuff out

No one expected that the fight between Republican candidate Tim Kleinschmidt and Democrat Donnie Dippel in the vacant House District 17 seat was always going to be rough. But now there's a GOP mailer out there that (hopefully by accident) violates Dippel's privacy by reprinting his social security number.

The Republican Party of Texas sent out an attack mailer against Dippel, showing that he'd once filed for bankruptcy. However, their attempts to black out Dippel and his wife's social security numbers were, eh, let's be generous, completely unsuccesful and the numbers are still visible.

According to his campaign, Dippel declared bankruptcy 19 years ago "after an unscrupulous builder ran off with the loan money for a house under construction on the Dippel family ranch." Dippel is out of bankruptcy, and the campaign is furious that their social security numbers have been basically handed out by the RPT.

Texas Democratic Party chair Boyd Richie has demanded that Kleinschmidt distance himself from the mailer, but the RPT is arguing that Dippel campaign is avoiding the real issue of his bankruptcy.