Category Archives: Political Direct Mail Archive – 2006

Disinfo Rehab Mail Archive – Fall 2006

Posted on October 22, 2006 by | Leave a comment

Note: This entry will be updated as I get more mail. New mail is featured at the bottom of this entry! Today’s additions: Jane Kim, Marin Healthcare Board, and more!
As promised, here is the first installment of the Fall 2006 Disinfo Rehab Mail Archive. Unlike television ads, which bloggers and media folks can easily dissect because they’re on TV, YouTube, candidate websites, and the like, mail is a “below the radar” medium. You know it is out there, but unless you’re on the targeted mailing list, you won’t see it.
Which is why it makes for a great way to send distinct messages to distinct groups of people – and a great way to attack someone and get away with it. By the time anyone notices it, it’s too late to do much about it, and the press usually isn’t sent copies of hit pieces by candidates!
Since I personally do not live in a district with an angrily contested Supervisorial race, I’m interested in submissions from readers who might have something they’ve received in the mail in the Daly/Black/SF Republican Party brouhaha, and the mega-money festival that is the District 4 battle to replace Fiona Ma, now that she’s been elected to a 6 year term in the Assembly. Oh and if anyone has any “freaky” mail from way out in Distrct 8, send it over!
As always, if you submit a big pile o’ mail, I’ll buy you a drink/coffee/whatever once this nutty election is over. Email me and tell me what you have and I’ll make arrangements to pick it up, or you can simply scan them in yourself and send them in as JPEGs.
Please note that all pieces that appear on this page were sent to actual voters, who in turn gave the pieces to me for inclusion in this fall’s archive. (To protect their privacy from identity thieves, their names and addresses have been Photoshopped out)
A mail piece’s appearance here does not indicate I’m endorsing or not endorsing a particular candidate, and it does not indicate that campaign endorses this site, its views, or anything at all. Conspiracy theorists, please put down the crack pipe and find something else to worry about.
Update: A loyal reader tipped me off to a similar project being done by the East Bay Express, entitled Fun with Misleading Mailers. Short and to the point, the additional coverage of the myriad of pieces hitting the mailbox is great for voters
And now, for the fun, after the jump!

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Posted in California Politics, Campaign Tactics & Analysis, Debunking Politicos Pundits + Spin, Gov. Doofinator's Follies, Political Direct Mail Archive - 2006, San Francisco Politics

California Primary Political Mail Archive is Up at GregDewar.com!

Posted on May 23, 2006 by | 3 comments

The first step of our Disinfo Rehab project is up and online! Thanks to good friends on the Peninsula and in San Francisco, as well as some trusty campaign volunteers, I’ve posted the first of what will be many entries into a Political Direct Mail Web Archive that you, the citizen, can review in advance of California’s Primary Election on June 6th. (Temporarily, PDF files submitted to the arcive are featured here while we get Flickr to cooperate!)
Currently the archive features entries from State Senate Candidate Mike Nevin , who has some of the most novel mail pieces, evoking an earlier era in campaign themes, as well as a piece I picked up at a street fair last weekend from the campaign of Fiona Ma, who is running in Assembly District 12.
More from our gubernatorial candidates, our friends in high and low places, and those running for other offices will be featured as the days go by. You may also make submissions by email by sending me an email with your reasonably sized JPEGs or PDFs of stuff you find.
Oddly enough, because I recently re-registered only a few months ago into the new house I moved into, I’m not getting the volume of doubleplusungoodmail I usually get. So, if you’re looking at that steaming pile of dead trees, and thinking of junking it, think again!
I’m offering a drink bounty to voters for new and unusual pieces of mail, in particular those sent out by special interests influencing the outcome of many of the Legislative elections in California, where so many people are running for ever so many offices.
Enjoy the archive and keep coming back as more images (and more commentary) are added to the new disinfobabble and artistic licenses issued by today’s politickers. Consultants are also welcome to submit pieces they are proud of, as well.
UPDATE: Big updates coming this weekend. Meanwhile, check this article out discussing the increasingly flat out false mail going out to the public.
UPDATE 2 – May 28th: More pieces have been added from the Reilly/Ma race and the Yee/Nevin/Papan race….anyone wishing to submit pieces they’ve received should email me with their entries…thanks!
Oh and some advice for the volunteers eager to tell us about their candidates – the moment you put a handout or a piece of unauthorized crap in a mailbox, not only do you earn bad karma, but you are also committing a federal crime. Just last night I found two piecesfor a candidate for DCCC shoved in my mailbox at home in the Inner Sunset. Not smart. Kids, learn the rules and play it safe, ok?

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Posted in California Politics, Campaign Tactics & Analysis, Debunking Politicos Pundits + Spin, Los Angeles Politics, Political Direct Mail Archive - 2006, San Francisco Politics