It’s a well known practice that both parties use “trackers” to follow around their opponents and look for juicy media scores, particularly in the closing days of an election. I’ve had to deal with a couple of them myself. But in Georgia, the Democrats have suffered a serious misfire in a “story” broken by a tracker following David Perdue. At a campaign event, it was alleged that Perdue had offered to autograph a young woman’s torso. Pretty racy stuff, eh? The Washington Post wasted no time in breaking the news.

David Perdue signs a young supporter’s torso

Georgia Republican Senate candidate David Perdue made a stop in Jonesboro, Ga. on Thursday and — going against the generally accepted rules of the campaign trail — agreed to sign a young supporter’s torso.

The video above shows Perdue smiling and beginning to lean in to oblige her request, before he stops and steps back.

“No pictures on this,” he said, before signing his name.

A few supporters eventually swooped to cover the scene with Perdue campaign signs, but not before a videographer working for American Bridge 21st Century — a Democratic-aligned super PAC that employs “trackers” to follow key GOP candidates — caught Perdue in the act.

Well, that certainly sounds pretty bad. I suppose Perdue is in a lot of trouble now, eh? You don’t want to be seen “signing skin” for young ladies. Except, that’s not even remotely close to what happened.

“David was asked to sign an individual’s diabetic pump to help raise awareness for juvenile diabetes,” said Megan Whittemore, a Perdue spokesperson. “This was a Georgia family who shared their personal story of their struggle with ObamaCare and the rising health care costs associated with their daughter’s treatment which is not being covered by their insurance.”

The video which covers what actually happened follows. Perdue was not engaging in some frat boy hijinks, offering to ink the rib cage of an attractive young woman. Nor was he trying to “hide” from the cameras. He agreed to sign the young lady’s insulin pump and his staff blocked the cameras to protect her modesty and not record footage of her medical device, which is clearly a personal matter to her family.

Nice try by Michelle Nunn’s team, but a total fail in the end. Here’s the actual video.

There is a photo (approved by the family) available here of the signed pump just as verification of the story, but I’d rather not publish it here. It’s not a shot that is NSFW in any way, but we should be sensitive to the girl’s family.