FC: Why politicians shouldn't spam, from a non-spamming politico

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Sun Jul 14 2002 - 20:08:01 PDT

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    Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 14:54:48 -0400 (EDT)
    From: Lawrence Kestenbaum <polygonat_private>
    To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private>
    Subject: Re: FC: Delaware politico Steve Biener claims he has the right to
      spam
    
    Declan,
    
    [Adapting and extending some of my earlier comments on the Bill Jones
    spam controversy...]
    
    As a politician myself -- county commissioner and former legislative
    candidate -- I have followed the political-spam issue with great interest.
    
    There once was a web site called PinkPols, which had an archive of
    political spam; unhappily, it's gone now.  I can't even find it here:
    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.galenaweb.com/pinkpols/
    Maybe someone could revive it?
    
    Sending mass unsolicited email messages is spam and is always a bad idea
    for a political campaign.  Absent a massive cultural and technological
    shift, it will always be a bad idea for a responsible mainstream
    candidate.
    
    As Isenberg points out, the First Amendment surely immunizes political
    messages from any existing or future anti-spam laws in the U.S.  But that
    doesn't mean it's a good tactic for someone who is trying to win an
    election.
    
    Politicians are tempted to spam because, in electoral politics, an opt-in
    audience is never enough.  A political campaign has to communicate
    effectively to people who might not choose to hear.
    
    Radio and television ads are decreasingly cost-effective for this because
    (1) political ads, if not repeated at saturation levels, are lost in the
    noise, (2) cable TV and Internet radio have shattered the audience into
    hundreds of specialized pieces, (3) while broadening the geographic scope
    far beyond any specific district or constituency.
    
    Political campaign web sites serve to preach to the choir, and perhaps
    provide useful information for a relative handful of highly motivated
    voters, but are not an effective way to campaign.  With hundreds of
    candidates running for dozens of offices in a typical general election,
    only the most dedicated and well-informed voter would ever think to seek
    out campaign sites of people running for for county commissioner.
    
    Hence, for the foreseeable future, we politicos must print our messages on
    old-fashioned paper and distribute them by hand or by postal mail.
    
                                   Larry
    
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    Lawrence Kestenbaum, polygonat_private
    Washtenaw County Commissioner, 4th District
    The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
    Polygon, the Dancing Bear, http://potifos.com/polygon
    Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106
    
    
    
    
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