Colleen Lachowicz is one of many Democrats who were victorious during yesterday's election. She was able to capture a senate seat in Main, despite a rather nasty smear campaign orchestrated by her Republican revival. One that entirely revolved around her love for World of Warcraft.
Lachowicz has always been open about her affinity for WoW, and proudly boasts about being a level 85 Orc Assassin Rogue. Which her opponents found disdainful and troubling. The Republican's primary weapon was a website that argued that Lachowicz was not fit to be senator, which claimed that her love of the game was basically a "bizarre double life."
The website goes at great lengths to destroy Lachowicz's character. Everything from pointing out how the average WoW gamers is younger than the now former candidate, to pointing out how activities performed in game (specifically, those that an assassin might perform on a regular basis) might somehow make her less than trustworthy in the real world.
But in the end, such tactics did not work, and essentially backfired. Due to all the attention that the website attracted, gamers ended up donating $6,300 towards Lachowicz's campaign and was victorious over Republican opponent Thomas Martin by 1900 votes. Kotaku also pointed out that, to mark the occasion, she posted the Final Fantasy 4 victory fanfare on her Facebook page.
