Fake Facebook page targets Racette campaign; Meta AI invents a fake county official | Opinion

Well here we are, three days into the campaign season for Sedgwick County Commission, and already the political dirty tricks have started.

Somebody has created a fake Facebook page to try to sabotage the campaign of Celeste Racette, a former candidate for Wichita mayor and current candidate for the Democratic nomination for County Commission District 3.

Racette’s real page is “Celeste for Kansas.” The phony page is called “Celeste for Sedgwick County.”

Except for the difference in names, the pages look almost exactly alike.

But the content is different.

For example, the real Racette page says this about why she’s running:

“This is a decision I thought about carefully. I pledge to use my financial skills and managerial expertise to collaborate on solving funding issues. I pledge to demonstrate Sedgwick County values of trust, integrity, ethics, collaboration, and innovation.”

The fake page says this:

“This is a decision I didn’t think about at all. I pledge to use my financial skills and managerial expertise to consolidate power under my wing. I pledge to demonstrate Sedgwick County values of lying, division, lack of ethics, selfishness, and stagnation.”

Even worse, whoever’s behind the fake page is impersonating Racette in discussions on other people’s Facebook pages.

It’s reminiscent of the fake attack ad four years ago on Brandon Whipple that got three Republicans — then-county Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, then-state Rep. Michael Capps and then-Wichita City Council member James Clendenin — all booted out of office.

And it smells a lot like a more recent hit job on Republican former council member and mayoral candidate Jared Cerullo, where shady political operatives bought a website with his name in it and linked it to a skeevy site offering illicit gay sex. It was a gross act of homophobia because Cerullo is a married gay man.

Racette thinks the attack on her is coming from rogue elements within the Democratic Party.

She has a rocky history with a faction of party insiders for having criticized Wichita council member Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, for voting on a COVID contract that benefited a close friend of his wife; and for running against former Mayor Brandon Whipple, also a fellow Democrat.

Once a Democratic precinct committeewoman, Racette left the party and ran as an independent in the nonpartisan mayoral race. She has since returned to the party and is seeking the nomination for county commissioner, which is a partisan election.

“There’s part of the Democratic Party that’s full of bullies,” Racette said. “I’m not going to be bullied. These extremists in the Democratic Party are just as bad as the extremists in the Republican Party that they criticize.”

Racette’s opponent in the Aug. 6 primary, AlmaAnn Jones, denounced the effort to smear Racette.

“I don’t like that, I’m 100% against that,” she said. “I have no problem personally with Celeste. I don’t support any of this bullying . . . I would not tolerate anybody in my campaign doing that.”

Meanwhile, Facebook is making matters worse.

While I was researching the real and fake pages for this article, Facebook’s Meta AI (which stands for Artificial Idiot), offered this absurdity:

“I’m assuming you mean Celeste Johnson, the Sedgwick County Commissioner. Here’s some information about her: Celeste Johnson is a Commissioner for Sedgwick County, Kansas. She represents District 4 and is a member of the Democratic Party. Johnson has served on the commission since 2019 and has been a vocal advocate for various issues, including healthcare, education, and social justice.”

The problem is, Commissioner Celeste Johnson does not exist.

Meta AI made her up, out of thin air.

Ryan Baty’s the commissioner in District 4, and he’s not even up for election this year.

But Facebook wasn’t through pushing the fictitious Celeste Johnson.

Meta AI suggested if I wanted to know more, I should check out this nonexistent person’s nonexistent social media pages and campaign website, attend a County Commission meeting and/or visit the county’s website to find her contact information and district boundaries.

It ended with this cheerful reminder: “Remember to stay informed and engaged in your local community!”

That’s what we’re trying to do, Meta. You’re not helping by inventing fake public officials.

To the operator(s) of the phony Celeste Racette page, my advice would be to cut it out, pronto.

In chasing down O’Donnell’s, Capps’ and Clendenin’s various political misdeeds, we here at The Eagle have developed what Liam Neeson would call “a very particular set of skills . . . that make (us) a nightmare for people like you.”

And to Facebook, it’s way past time for you to clean up your act as well.

You need to quit providing a platform for bad actors to commit campaign fraud and identity theft via labeling their content as “Satire/Parody” in the fine print — which is what the sneak attack on Racette claims to be, but obviously isn’t.

We’re not playing FarmVille or Sim City here. This is real life and we’re dealing with real people, real issues and real lives.

So you need to get your Meta AI under control and stop spreading misinformation about our government, or pull the plug on it.

Democracy, indeed common decency, demand nothing less.