We've all seen them. They come in size big and bigger and they've been inundating our mail boxes for more than a month.
In the last two days, I've received 25 mailers and we still have five days before the elections. How many have you received today? But more importantly, are they effective? Do they help you decide which way you will vote? Or are they simply more things to put in the recycle bin (or line your bird cages/kitty boxes with)?
Tell us in the comments and snap a picture of your stack and share it here.
Two years ago I ran for a local office. I came in 5th place out of 9 candidates, for 3 seats. During my race, I was fortunate to be able to raise enough funds to do two mailers (they are not cheap). One mailer for absentee voters and one for voters that go to the polls. Timing is everything. Now for the whys. Mailers are necessary for a candidate that truly wants to win his or her race. Not every voter will know every candidate and the objective is name recognition. Another reason is that even if a candidate was able to visit every voters residence, How many people will not be home when you knock on the door?
In my race one candidate did about 7 mailers and guess what? He won. I do agree with the idea of using recycled materials. If they are available. I too, agree that it would be in the candidates best interest to use them if available. Now to address the issue of the letter carriers. This really is job security for them, and while it may seem like a burden to them, postage is being paid and pay checks are being issued. I'm not sure how many of you may remember the days of the Sears and Roebuck Christmas catalogs going out in November to every house. Compared to the weight of all those catalogs, the letter carriers today have a much lighter load. In the future, when your tossing those mailers, and I agree, they are a lot of trees, I ask that you try to look at it from the candidates prospective. They are working very hard to get your vote, so they can serve their community as best as you would want them to. We definitely need good people running our schools and governments, and some times it takes a mailer to help the voters make decisions. I have many elderly neighbors that are not even on a computer, but they still vote in every election. Thank you for reading my thoughts.
I understand your point and agree with you. Four mailers per week is excessive. Unfortunately, if the campaign that sends that sends four mailers per week wins, they're going to think they did the right amount and the campaign that sent two or three lost, they're going to think they should have sent more. I really don't have an answer as to the perfect amount of mailers but I think we both will agree that it will be great to have out telephones, T.V's and our mailboxes back to normal after this election is finally over. Have a great weekend.
I have not received many mailers, but most are from Jim Beall and Paul Fong. I received two from Fong on the same day, and several in one week. Unfortunately, the Beall mailers attack Coto and don't say much about Beall's record. The Fong ones are only about who endorses him. No substance; one said he had a 100% voting record but it was who supports him 100%; nothing about his actual voting record.