During the 2002 gubernatorial race, it was routine to see operatives from Mitt Romney’s campaign videotaping the events of his chief opponent, Democrat Shannon O’Brien. Nobody made too much of this practice, which is common during political campaigns. But it was strange to see a young man in a baseball cap from the Romney camp (the blue-and-red Romney-Healey logo clearly displayed on his camera) taping a group of protesters at a Romney press event last Thursday. Since when do people who’ve already won an election tape protesters?

Romney was just finishing up his press conference at Nurses Hall on the second floor of the State House when a group of approximately 20 elderly people and a man dressed as Santa filed in. The group, who were members of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, began protesting budget cuts by singing "50,000 lose their health care" to the tune of "Deck the Halls." Romney’s communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, led Romney upstairs and away from the fray.

I asked one of the protesters, Arvilla Sarazen, of Cambridge, what was going on. She told me she was "very disappointed that [Romney] didn’t talk to us." As we spoke, I looked to my left and noticed the Romney cameraman taping my conversation with the activists. Taping a political opponent is one thing, I thought. Taping a group of elderly protesters is something else. John Roberts, the executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, agrees. "It’s intimidating," says Roberts. "They ought to be asked why they’re doing it. Does he have a list? What’s the purpose?" Roberts distinguishes campaign videotaping of candidates from post-election videotaping of protesters. "Public figures have got to expect they live in a fishbowl," he notes.

Asked Friday about the incident, Fehrnstrom blamed the taping on "an overzealous assistant." He said that the Romney administration’s policy will be to "videotape news events. The only people we’re videotaping are the governor and the lieutenant governor and their interactions with the press," as part of an attempt to compile a "video record" of the governor’s statements to the media. "We’ve found it quite useful to have that record and have that archive," he said. As for why the assistant was videotaping protesters in light of the new policy, Fehrnstrom said, "Maybe it [the policy] wasn’t communicated clearly enough."

Interestingly, the taping didn’t bother Sarazen, who was the person being taped. "We want him to see," Sarazen said. "We want him to know we’re still alive." Given the budget cuts Romney will undoubtedly make, more protesters will surely show up on Beacon Hill to let the new governor know they’re alive. The coming months should provide plenty of tests to see if Fehrnstrom keeps his word.