He had to pay for Morgan Griffith’s ersatz ‘survey’
Your daily Letter to the Columnist — Jan. 15, 2013
RE: Morgan Griffith’s Survey
In addition to all the complaints about the biased survey questions, my main objection is that after all of the expensive campaign advertisements paid for by PACs I had to endure last fall, now I am required to pay for ads myself.
Although disguised as a survey, Griffith’s mailing was really just a political advertisement “prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense” as indicated on the back.
Yes, duly elected members of Congress have free mailing privileges and they can claim to be keeping in touch with their constituents with bogus surveys, but did I have to pay for a slick, glossy, card stock advertisement featuring color photos of my representative at work?
He included a photo of an “important message” on congressional letterhead superimposed over what appears to be fine wood paneling. Why not just send out the letter on regular paper with the survey on the back?
Or for that matter, why not just put the survey on his website, so people can respond without having to pay for a stamp?
With all the talk about cutting wasteful spending, we should start with an “opt out” option for taxpayer-funded campaign mailings.
Gene Gardner
BLACKSBURG
January 15, 2013 - 1:30 PM
Agreed.
My parents in the 1st District also got a mass mailing from their elected Congress critter and the questions on that one and this one are similar. Makes me wonder if there’s some conservative lobby templating these things for Republican candidates to modify in-house for their own use.
I agree with Gene, most all these folks R’s and D’s abuse this franking privilege. If they want to send out mail they should use their campaign funds.
Although he is an easy mark on this blog, Griffith is no worse than anyone else. I’ve gotten the same stuff from my congressmen on the other side. It seems when they all cross the river, they all think DC is their own “paradise island”.
They really don’t care what people think until about 6 months before an election.
Have you ever written to your congressman or senator on an issue? Funny story…, last year I wrote to Warner (who I actually like) disagreeing on an issue; I got a form letter back thanking me for supporting him on the issue. Lol….
Apparently I got placed in the “agree” pile instead of the “disagree” pile for return letters.