Email Spam From Campaigns In Full Force….

One of the new features of the voter registration form is the fact you can voluntarily enter in your email address, along with the other info, which means inevitably someone goes to City Hall, buys the voter data, and campaigns start sending email out willy nilly. My friend Anna, who’s a professional in the email marketing business, has an interesting analysis of the stuff she’s received.
I am getting relentlessly spammed by Cindy Sheehan’s “campaign,” which seems to place its faith in poorly written hysterical emails that make it hard for me to treat her campaign seriously. However, I got one today from the campaign for Judge Thomas Mellon that was actually pretty good. The message was short and to the point – more importantly however, it was from the trial judge in the landmark gay-marriage case, which is rather timely.
Mellon’s opponent is Supervisor Sandoval, who I wouldn’t trust to run a two-car parade, much less be a judge in a courtroom. Mellon’s campaign was smart, however, not to spam me with a negative messave, but instead with one that is timely from the judge in the gay marriage case.
Political campaigns need to resist the urge to blast out lots of crappy emails just because it’s easy or free. Spamming people is a sure-fire way to piss off voters, and mealy mouthed justifications about how the CAN SPAM act doesn’t apply to ’em just makes people even more pissed off.
Instead, it’s better to use online social networks, such as Facebook, to recruit supporters and communicate with them, and allow them to opt in to online communications. Everyone’s happy and no one gets spammed!