Maine state senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz is being slammed by the Maine GOP for her “bizarre double life”, which is how they describe her pastime as a level 68 female orc rogue in World of Warcraft. The Maine GOP’s press release called her game role an “orc assassination rogue” and described her green skin, fangs, and Mohawk hairstyle in the game.
Lachowiz’s GOP opponent, incumbent state senator Tom Martin, said he was unaware of the state GOP press release until contacted by Politico.com about the story. The state GOP spokesman, David Sorenson, said “Certainly the fact that she spends so much time on a video game says something about her work ethic and, again, her immaturity.”
Lachowiz told Politico that her enemies are out-of-touch if they think being a gamer is shameful. She is a 48-year-old social worker, and noted that she hasn’t played that much recently because she’s been busy campaigning. Both she and her opponent have declared themselves as “clean election candidates,” meaning they have vowed to abstain from negative campaigning. Of course, that doesn’t apply to the state parties, and the Maine GOP has already sent out a mailer with pictures of Lachowiz’s orc character.
“There are a lot of these misconceptions about people who play online games,” said Lachowicz, who has a Master’s degree in social work and runs a division of a statewide mental health facility. “I’ve played with people who are retired, college professors and lawyers. I’ve only ever played with adults.”
Lachowicz said that she has played games her entire life and has never tried to hide the fact that she’s a gamer. She started gaming with an Atari home console and loved going to arcades, and more recently enjoyed playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on her PS3.
While the Maine GOP is clearly hoping that her gaming hobby will drive voters away, it may serve to connect her to younger voters and gamers in general. Perhaps the gaming audience is big enough that being a gamer will help her politically, and not hurt her. The results will be interesting to observe when the votes are counted in November.
Source: Politico.com
