Posted on 01/30/2016 8:47:23 AM PST by COUNTrecount
It has now been confirmed - The photograph of Ted Cruz campaign shaming letters is legit (see below). The letters are officially from the Ted Cruz campaign.
Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler confirmed to IJ Review that the mailer was theirs in a phone call Friday evening, saying that the targeting had been "very narrow, but the caucuses are important and we want people who haven't voted before to vote." (link) The personalized letters target individual Iowa voters and identifies them as having failed to vote in prior elections. They are admonished and then encouraged to vote this year. In addition the letters identify the neighbors of the voter, and provides their voting history.
The text reads: "You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors' are public record. Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday's caucuses". In an effort to shame the recipient, the notice also informs the targeted voter their neighbors have also been notified of the recipients poor voting record. How the Cruz Team would think a public shaming campaign is a good idea is just staggeringly unbelievable.
The campaign scheme was exposed via Twitter where "Tom Hinkeldy, a resident of Alta, Iowa, tweeted a photo (which was later deleted because it included his personal address) on Friday evening of a mailer Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign sent addressed to his wife, Steffany" -link-
Word spread rapidly.
(Excerpt) Read more at theconservativetreehouse.com ...
Whew! Thanks for the /s tag. Had me worried for a minute....
“Hmmmm... Explains why Sarah Palin contacted Trump.. Word must have leaked Cruz hired this bunch”
Maybe Palin got a shaming letter. LOL!
This technique was used in Alaska. She must have known about it.
...] “Why would they think that shaming would make people comply?”
Because, well, it does. That’s according to Chris Larimer, associate professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa. And he’s done the research to prove it.
“We found that when you make people aware of the norm of voting and that somebody else is going to observe whether or not you vote, people are more likely then to vote,” he said.
The letter from the so-called Alaska State Voter Project is nearly identical, word for word, to one that Larimer and other researchers tested in Michigan, right down to the typography and punctuation. In that 2006 research, Larimer and colleagues sent voters one of four different letters.
The softest message just urged people to do their civic duty and vote. The most aggressive letter matched the Alaska mailer. It included the addressee’s voting history as well as those of their neighbors, and contained something of a threat by promising a follow-up letter to show the results of the upcoming election. Larimer says they got complaints, but the technique worked quite well. (read more)
If the Trump campaign was sending out letters like this, then the Cruz people would be complaining and posting them on the Internet, and with good reason.
I don't care how you spin this, pissing off voters won't help anybody's campaign.
There’s no place for social conservatives in a Trump campaign then?
“House to house raids would increase turn out too but some things leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.”
House to house raids in rural Iowa might also get you shot! The “bad taste” would be lead!
Very unChristian behavior.
Change the word ‘’vote’’ to the word ‘’worship’’. Then, you will see Cruz’s agenda. There is a reason he wants- make that “needs a Convention of the States to get [his] agenda passed”.
There is a reason behind every vote, everything he says & does. Hiding in plain sight.
Tunnel vision.
I really believe that Cruz just blew it. I saw a clip on the internet, actually You Tube, where Cruz thought he was so funny in his opening statements against Donald Trump and the first thing that came to my mind was the old saying, “Pride goes before the fall.”
LMAO!!!
Zillow tells you more every day about your neighbors than this silly mailing to a few R registered people who haven’t voted lately.
Facebook is a thousand times worse.
The mistake was giving out “F”s. Everyone should have gotten an A or a B and been encouraged to “turn your B into an A!”
This is one of those things that is huge on twitter but has no effect on the voting.
Agree completely.
One thing is certain, though. Even if Cruz, my favored candidate, is damaged and becomes a non-factor by the time of the Missouri primary on March 15, there is one candidate I definitely will not be voting for, and that is Donald Trump. Trump is a total embarrassment. I would vote for one of the other guys--i.e., the next-best overall social and constitutional conservative--before I would ever vote for Trump.
“This was in my email today....I have repeatedly asked for them to stop, I don’t believe the bottom of the barrel these people will go to....”
Just “unsubscribe” them! I have. Since I’ve made up my mind, I’ve unsubscribed all of them. Now, I just wish that I could find an easier way to get rid of telephone solicitors. I already have “A$$HOLES 0 thru 60” listed in my iPhone Contacts with their numbers blocked, and I add one or two a day!
I remember a similar mailing tactic long ago from Fortune magazine. They actually mailed me a notice my subscription had expired and threatened to put me in collections. I went thru the roof. I called up their subscription department and chewed them out and said if they ever dared put me in collection I'd sue them so fast their head would spin.
Needless to say, I never renewed my subscription and never read their crap weasel magazine again.
You probably need to read a couple of the other threads.
Former Cruz supporters right here on FR are creeped about this, and they are changing their vote.
Yes. And the eminent domain crowd can back off here at FR.
Of course there is. But there has to be some tolerance for those of us who believe that economic conservatism or constitutional conservatism is the thing we can all agree on.
Yup, receiving something like this can really upset people.
You know, in retrospect, this campaign has never been about ideas. Trump supporters have done much more to try to shame me into giving up my candidate than the Cruz campaign did to these folks. Now that I have decided I will not vote for Cruz as one that represents my views, my values are being personally attacked by a Trump supporter.
That said, Cruz can take a hike. His campaign did something that is anathema to a freedom-loving and free-thinking people. I will not vote for him.
What a strange election cycle. I disagree with those who say this year has been politics as usual.
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