Take Cover!
Stop the presses and hide the children! A political candidate has sent an email message that lays out a substantive policy position and DOESN’T just ask for money. Behold this rare animal, recently sent by Massachusetts congressional hopeful Marisa DeFranco:
Here is Idea #10 in our campaign to give voters actual solutions to our current challenges and to provide 20 steps to a Total Democracy Makeover
…
Port and Border Security
Right now, Marisa is very concerned that our borders and ports are vulnerable — the vast majority of cargo containers enter our country through ship or truck, and yet the inspection rates for both are woefully low. For containers entering by ship, the most common method, inspection rates have actually gone down to 4% (nine years ago the rate was already an unacceptable low of 5%). Someone is asleep on the job….[policy recommendations follow]
This is completely bizarre behavior. Doesn’t she realize that candidates and party committees are ONLY allowed to send fundraising messages, and that they must include subject lines like “Looming Impending Mind-Numbing Soul-Destroying Defeat” designed to scare money out of supporters’ wallets? Madness, I say!
Or maybe, it’s a smart way to suggest to your supporters that you DON’T just see them as ATMs with legs, and that you might have some potential to be a informed, intelligent legislator. Naaaaah, nobody’d do that — it’s crazy talk. How could this message possibly have stood out from the glut of identical-sounding emails now clogging the e.politics inbox? If this becomes a trend, I might have to start opening campaign missives again! And that would suck.
– cpd