Diary Of A Mad Voter: Dan Rostad
Schweitzer’s Campaign Letter: Politics For The Dogs
By Dan Rostad, 11-30-07
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Politics in the rural West is often a game more similar to the behavior of a dogs than of a humans. You know, all that sniffing around, posturing, staking out your ground, barking loud and snarling to intimidate your competition and let’s not forget the inevitable marking of your territory.
The election season seems to bring out the worst in the dog-like behavior of our politicians. Makes you wish you could get that ”Dog Whisperer” to come to your neighborhood and use his choke collar on these rebellious hounds.
If you live in Montana and committed the offense of contributing to Republican Bob Brown’s campaign for Governor in 2004, you probably received a letter from our current Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, soliciting contributions of the same amount for his 2008 re-election bid.
Schweitzer’s campaign gang searched the public records from the last election and actually took the time to send a note from their boss to the many Montanan’s who contributed to Brown in 2004.
The Governor defended his actions by saying: “We only received 51 percent (actually 50.4 percent) of the vote last time. We’d like the support of most Montanans. This is a completely appropriate letter.”
Here’s how the text of one Schweitzer fund-raising letter begins:
“During Montana’s 2004 campaign for governor, you supported Bob Brown with a contribution of (specific amount). While I would have welcomed your support in that race, I respect your decision and appreciate your active involvement in the political process, which ultimately is the most important thing of all.”
The letter adds that “you and I may not see eye to eye on every issue, but we can both agree that it’s important for all of us that Montana continues the economic progress we’ve been experiencing over the past few years. And by most any measurement or any political standard, things have never been better in Montana.”
The letter was soundly condemned by many in the Montana Republican Party, including Bob Brown who was quoted as saying: “As far as I know, what he did is not illegal, but it is audacious, and if audacity was music, he would be a brass band,”
Well, if you know anything about Governor Schweitzer, you know all about his trademark images: his bolo tie and his dog Jag. They go everywhere with him. Heck, the dog even has his own book.
In the West, you need a dog for all kinds of reasons: hunting, herding, hounding. However, dogs left on their own without appropriate supervision can get into a lot of trouble.
Schweitzer might be taking campaign tips from Jag – coming over to the Republican side of the yard and “marking” his territory all over their fence posts and fire hydrants.
And of course, the Republican dogs are all lined up snarling, barking loud and running around sniffing their ground, mad as all get out.
When politicians start acting like dogs someone needs to come along and yank their chain. But I guess this is what politics are all about now – a bunch of mutts running around trying to be the pack leader.
Why else would Schweitzer send out a letter to Republican contributors. It certainly isn’t about the money. He already has raised nearly $800,000 for an election that’s nearly a year away. His only opponent, Roy Brown, just recently announced his candidacy, so Schweitzer is way ahead of him in the money game.
Maybe Schweitzer should quit worrying about raising so much money, least of all from his political enemies, and just stand on his record of service and his position on the issues. Why should he worry about marking someone else’s fence posts?
Schweitzer has the bully pulpit of the media to get his message out. Imagine if you will, Schweitzer getting his campaign to publish a report card of his achievements and promises for the next four years – a one time report like all business CEO’s do, with an account of how he spent our money, used our resources and tended to our business. Send it out to every voter in the state. It wouldn’t cost half the money he has in his bank account right now and he could give away the rest to charity or pay off his million dollar mansion.
The TV and radio stations would hate it though, because they would have to find something else to fill all those campaign commercial spaces that would normally be filled with political barking dog messages.
Wouldn’t it be great if incumbent politicians all over the rural West, decided that the old hound dog game of sniffing keisters and taking cash was a waste of time and money. Because after all, a dog out West is great when he is working or sleeping, but can be a real pain when he is out barking and marking.
Editor’s note: Dan Rostad’s weekly blogs are part of a new feature on NewWest.Net/Politics called “Diary of a Mad Voter,” a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. Check back this week at www.newwest.net/madvoter.
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Comments
Ooo! Maybe Schweitzer's got a machine that can send signals into people's brains! Better get that tinfoil hat on!
It seems the only thing to be mad about here (these are diaries of "mad voters" after all) is that a politically popular Governor might convince a few folks to look beyond party affiliation in determining what's best for the State of Montana.
Perhaps, as a matter of good taste, the Governor should have left the amount off the letter (although not even this article focuses on that aspect). And regardless, the inclusion of the amount strikes me as routine as inserting the address lines, the appropriate salutation on the head of the letter, and the aoutopen signature of the Governor at end.
Second, if you believe Schweitzer or any governor is the most powerful person in a state you just don't know much about the real world.
In reality what worked the repubbies up is that they are likely to loose some of their sugar as a result. But what the heck, fake indignation is the first chapter in the GOP play book.
"I can't believe you would accuse ME of lying-corruption-etc"!
Second, politics in this country is all about marketing. Marketing is about segmentation, targeting, and messaging specific segments to 'buy' or in this case 'donate' and/or vote. Is it really anything more than that?
Political parties, like direct marketing firms, buy lists (that your local bank/credit card company originally sold with the consent of our politicians) of targets which they hope to turn into prospects. In this case, a political candidate was able to get the target list through publicly available information.
Any indignancy towards this political candidate and his party is either naive or just misplaced anger. They ALL do it. Can we move on to some real issues now?
As previously stated, the "reason to do it" is to reach across the political aisle to engage and influence a politically active subset of voters who are much more likely than most voters to contribute to a political campaign.
You can bet there are plenty of "moderate" fence-spenders in Montana who throw money at the party in power. I must applaud the initiative of the staffer who did the data entry et cetera.
As for the big bruddah aspect of the amount, nah. One of the fundamentals of an "ask" letter or call is to ask for a specific amount.
It's safe to bet that some of the spenders were vetted on the FEC and Money in State Politics websites for past patterns. And you betcha someone will be tracking what happens after, and whoever gets one of these letters and cuts a check will be tooted on the horn as "proof of Brian Schweitzer's bipartisanship and moderation." Like Andre sez: Image is everything. Ask David Sirota about that.