Tag Archives: campaign literature

MoCo Mailboxes: “God Help Us”

By Adam Pagnucco.

Mailboxes across MoCo are reeling from fatigue as they are crushed daily by tidal waves of political mail.  On Friday, your author received mailers from Action Committee for Transit, the sitting judges, Council At-Large candidate Will Jawando, District 18 Senate candidate Dana Beyer and District 18 House candidate Emily Shetty.  The next day your author received mailers from County Executive candidates David Blair and Roger Berliner, Council At-Large candidates Bill Conway and Evan Glass, District 18 House candidates Leslie Milano, Joel Rubin and Jared Solomon and the Maryland Realtors on behalf of District 18 Senate candidate Jeff Waldstreicher.  That’s thirteen political mailers in two days.

District 18 is an unusually busy place.  It has at least six General Assembly candidates with six-figure campaign budgets, or close to it.  But lots of places around MoCo have serious competition, including Congress District 6, Council Districts 1 and 3 and all the state legislative districts except 14.  In addition, there are strongly contested races for Governor, County Executive and Council At-Large.

Candidates line up to door knock at a Super Democrat’s house.

In the old days, the rule of thumb was that early mail was a waste of money.  Now we wonder about that.  There was a time not so long ago when Congress District 6 candidate David Trone, County Executive candidate David Blair and District 18 Senate candidate Dana Beyer – all self-funders – had the mailboxes largely to themselves.  Now the mailboxes may not be big enough to hold each day’s batch.  Everyone’s mail is getting lost in the shuffle.  And when so much of it looks the same – almost everyone is a “progressive leader” who promises to fund schools, fix congestion and resist Trump – it’s unclear that anyone can win through mail.  It’s going to take something else to get across the line.

The best of the mailers: District 18 House candidate Emily Shetty and her adorable son.

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Lately, your author has been performing a cruel experiment.  Our son just turned nine.  He much prefers Star Wars, nerf guns and video games to politics, but he understands that he has an eccentric Dada whose strange wishes must be occasionally tolerated.  So when the new batches of mail come, your author gives them to him and asks which ones are his favorites.  At first, the oppressed son dutifully complied and gave curt opinions.  (He likes Will Jawando because he met him and David Blair because he owns Badlands Playspace.)  But now, the requests for review are met with eye rolls and crankiness.  “Do I really have to look at this stuff?” he groans.

We suspect more than a few MoCo voters might agree!

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MoCo Council District 5 Candidate Terrill North Replies

In a post yesterday, I pointed out that Terrill North, a candidate for Montgomery County Council District 5, included a quote from Sen. Jamie Raskin on his campaign literature that indicated an endorsement that he did not have.

Here are Terrill North’s thoughts on the matter:

I was sharing comments that Sen. Raskin made at a campaign fundraiser last fall, much of it has been posted online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42CwihDTBis since November.  My goal was to share what Jamie has said publicly about my work helping over 750 at-risk youth in District Five each year through M.A.N.U.P. and Impact Silver Spring (which was the context of his remarks).  I didn’t mean to imply a formal endorsement, just to share what Jamie has said about me with people that are just now getting to know me.  I assume he has positive comments about most of the folks running for office this year because 1) it’s hard to work for progressive change without getting to know Jamie and 2) that’s the type of person Jamie is.  My apologies for any confusion and feel free to contact me directly at info@terrillnorth.com anytime with any questions or concerns.

 

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UPDATE: Raskin Statement on North Flyer

From Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-20):

“I have had a number of calls from confused constituents and candidates about this piece, which I was totally unaware of. It quotes a statement I made in September of last year at Terrill’s kickoff for one of the at-large Council seats. But I have not endorsed Terrill for the District 5 seat and have made that clear to people who have called me about this.”

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Terrill North’s Campaign No-Noes

TNorth1Bad Campaign Lit: Has Quote from Non-Endorser

Montgomery County Council District 5 Candidate Terrill North has provided what educators call “a teaching moment” about campaign literature. Two of North’s lit pieces, one above and one below, contain quotes from Sen. Jamie Raskin, a popular guy in District 5. North also has photos with Raskin on his website.

Except that Raskin has not endorsed North. The quote is from when North was going to run at-large. Candidates should not use (1) quotations or (2) photos of other elected officials without their permission. Not in their literature, web sites, Facebook pages or anywhere else. Some think this is just fine. It’s not. It is misleading and dishonest to imply support that you don’t have.

I’ve included the third piece, actually the back of North’s first piece, as a counter example. Here, North lists his past efforts and goals for the district. That’s great. I hope we see more of that instead of quotations that imply support from non-endorsers.

TNorth3More Bad Campaign Lit

TNorth2 Good Campaign Lit Highlights Accomplishments and Goals

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