World of Warcraft playing Maine Democrat slammed by GOP

Colleen Lachowicz is an enthusiastic World of Warcraft player. She has a level 85 orc rogue, and regularly talks with her guildmates about talent builds and loot. She's also a Democratic candidate for Maine's State Senate, and her time spent in Azeroth is a big problem to the Maine Republican Party.

The Maine GOP has targeted Lachowicz's WoW play in an attack website, which compiles various statements she has made speaking casually about the game in online groups. "In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments like the ones below. Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world," the site's header reads.

Some of the quotes the site calls out include: "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?!" and "I can kill stuff without going to jail. There are some days when this is more necessary than others."

Lachowicz told NBC News she found it strange her opponents would focus on her gaming habits rather than their own service record and platform.

"I think it's weird that I'm being targeted for playing online games," she said. "Apparently I'm in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games."

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.