Can Gov. Patrick get any worse?

Gov. Deval Patrick’s punchy campaign staff sent out an e-mail blast to supporters Monday night hoping to blunt yesterday’s Herald expose on the administration’s year-long hiring frenzy, flinching even before the brutal news hit the street.

But experts warn the attempted pre-emptive political strike is risky business for the slumping governor’s re-election bid.

“It just whiffs of desperation,” said Thomas Whalen, a Boston University political science professor. “It sounds like they can’t afford to have any bad news, so they’re trying to get on top of bad stories before they even come out.”

Patrick campaign officials sounded the alarm Monday night - hours before the Herald’s splash landed on racks. The report detailed how the administration has hired some 1,300 new employees this year - including a librarian for cons, a painter for public health and a “game biologist” - despite a spiraling fiscal crisis.

“The story may unfairly distort the Governor’s outstanding record of confronting our state’s budget challenges,” Patrick campaign manager Sydney Asbury wrote in the e-mail obtained by the Herald.

Asbury also urged readers to “forward the e-mail to 10 friends” in an attempted viral campaign to spin the story in their favor.

However, a subsequent Herald payroll analysis shows the administration in fact low-balled the projected annual salaries of some of the new hires by as much as $34,000.

Reached yesterday to explain the mistaken figures provided to the Herald, Sally McNeely of the state Human Resources Division, said, “It appears an error was made in the initial entry.”

Meanwhile, Patrick campaign spokesman Steve Crawford said the e-mail blast - which highlighted a 2,000-job net loss from the state payroll - was standard operating procedure. “We place a high level of importance on keeping our supporters informed and this is another example of that,” he said.

A rapid response to head off bad press isn’t new to political campaigning, but it runs the risk of spreading negative news to an even larger group, said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor.

“It can end up drawing even more attention to the matter,” said Sabato. “Obviously Patrick has a very tough general election in front of him, and he has to come out swinging every time there’s a charge against him.”

UPDATE: More from the Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Beacon Hill Institute, Holly Robichaud and Globe.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Howie Carr and the Herald.