When politics collides with World of Warcraft: Colleen Lachowicz' public shaming

While a Democratic Maine state Senate candidate is facing ridicule for her online life as a trash-talking assassin orc, the state GOP is taking flak for making it an issue

Avatar Santiaga
(Image credit: World of Warcraft)

It's getting to be a truism that, in politics, what happens online doesn't stay online. But the scrutiny of a public figure's tweets, Facebook and blog posts, and sometimes even emails is one thing; what's happening to Maine state Senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz is on a whole new level. Lachowicz, a Democrat, is under fire from the state Republican Party for her activities as a level-85 rogue orc assassin in the popular online game World of Warcraft. While Lachowicz is a rather nondescript social worker in real life, her WoW avatar, Santiaga, is a green-skinned trash-talker with a mohawk, and the Maine GOP has combed through all available details about Santiaga and posted them on a website they created to try and disqualify Lachowicz for leading a "time-consuming" and "bizarre double life." Her Republican rival, Tom Martin, is apparently not involved in this get-Santiaga campaign. Can the GOP really sink Lachowicz for enthusiastically playing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), like millions of other Americans?

"I'm not sure if this is more disheartening or hilarious," says Rebecca Pahle at The Mary Sue. I mean sure, Lachowicz does get a little political in Santiaga's posts to various WoW forums — she calls selfish role-playing gamers "teabaggers," jokes that she'd like to "hunt down [anti-tax activist] Grover Norquist and drown him in my bathtub," and writes: "So I'm a level 68 orc rogue girl. That means I stab things... a lot... Who would have thought that a peace-lovin' social worker and democrat would enjoy that?" But if a "completely normal" WoW habit is disqualifying, we're reaching a new low.

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