Candidates can prove to us they're fiscally responsibile

After a brief trip out of town last weekend, I came home Sunday evening to find seven political mailings in the mailbox, all focusing on this week’s GOP primary races. Three mailings were from one candidate, two from the other, another was a three page letter from a former legislator endorsing one of the candidates, and a Republican central committee member asking for re-election. Yes, it’s only a small dose of what we’ll experience again in late October and early November, but it made me think about the inefficient use of resources and spending that went into it all.

During a campaign, candidates try to convince us if we elect them they’ll be responsible with taxpayer dollars. They speak to us about what ideas and experiences they’ll bring to the job. What they don’t even realize is they don’t have to wait until they get elected to show us. They can prove it right now and can show us throughout their campaign how they’ve handle other peoples’ money. If they can’t use contributed money given by friends, family, and colleagues in an efficient and responsible manner, then it’s hard to imagine they’ll be able to do it with their whole constituency’s money.

Candidates are required to file campaign finance reports outlining their contributions and expenditures. After viewing some of them, it may be disappointing to see where all those $25 donations go. As taxpaying citizens, we hold our government accountable for its actions and campaign contributors should approach their donations in a similar way. It’s candidates with ‘fresh ideas’ and a ‘fiscally responsible’ approach who hopefully already hold this simple concept. It makes you wonder how many candidates will use the simple opportunity of this weekend’s sales tax holiday to save on the purchase of campaign supplies going into the final months of the cycle.

Unfortunately, even if candidates raise a lot of money, it evaporates on direct mailings. Rounds and rounds of postcards can add up to significant amounts. It’s a part of the political culture. Candidates work tirelessly for months on end to meet people in person and deliver their message. Then, with only a short amount of time left they blanket voters with mass mailings making sure they’ve left no stone unturned, almost as if everything they had done up to that point didn’t matter. Sometimes it seems as if the terms ‘coordinated campaign’ and ‘direct mail’ are oxymorons because they rarely seem well-planned or are even sent to independent or swing voters.

I would be wrong to tell you these mailings don’t have an effect. They do, especially if one candidate has more financial resources than their opponent. Someone once told me a candidate’s mail pieces should provide a simple message and be attractive enough for someone to read as they throw it away. Part affiliation aside, the fact is if someone throws away one candidate’s mail and doesn’t receive anything from their opponent, you’ll likely vote for the person you received mail from. Yes, even after so much time is put into a campaign, the results could hinge on something as simple as whether a voter took the time to recall the name on a piece of mail they threw in the trash.

One thing I know is that I didn’t even vote for any of the GOP candidates I received mailings from last weekend… Why? I picked up a Democratic ballot.