The Libertarian Action Super PAC sent the following email this morning:
Dear Libertarian:
This is your opportunity to mail Gary Johnson postcards to voters near you, or anywhere in America!
If you donate at least $500, you can pick where they will go!
For a minimum donation of $500, we will send at least 1,000 Gary Johnson postcards to registered voters in the city+state or zip code where you would like us to send them. Use the “comments” area to specify a city+state or zip code (Like “Los Angeles, CA” or “75001″.)
For $1,000 we will send at least 2,000 postcards, and so on. The postcards cost us about 50 cents each to print and mail. (If we find cheaper deals, or get lower rates, we will send even more postcards!)
If you donate an amount less than $500, or if you do not specify a location in the comments area where you want the postcards to go, then we will choose the location where to send the postcards. We will try to be strategic with our choices. In addition to our goal of introducing more voters to Gary Johnson, these are some things we might consider:
* We might target states where the presidential vote might help retain ballot access
* We might target individual precincts so we can measure the effect our postcard has on the vote results
* We might target a swing state and a non-swing state, to see how our results compare
Over 90% of your donation will go directly to the postcard vendors. (We have to pay credit card fees and cover some administration.)
Again, in order for you to choose the location where the postcards are mailed, you must make a donation of at least $500 all at once. We will not be able to add up multiple smaller donations to get to $500. If you would like to target something on a smaller scale than this postcard offer, you might try ordering some of our door hangers for that purpose.
Here is a draft of the postcard we expect to use:
–Wes Benedict
512-659-8896
P.S. You can pick where the postcards will go if you donate at least $500. Donate now!
Comments removed from this thread; see archive.org to find them.
ATBAFT – I like the postcard idea but it’s a little late at this point and I’m skeptical that many people would participate. I doubt we’d get orders for over 500 nationwide. If someone will contribute $1,000 to seed this project, I’d probably roll it out. I have to way the opportunity costs of our time preparing a postcard project versus finding more people to put up our 5 cent door hangers (which cost way less than postcards). By the way, I think you could cut the tops off the door hangers, put them in an envelope, and mail them with a note inside to your contact lists if nothing else works.
Matt, I made the donation on the LASPAC website to mail the Gary Johnson postcards to voters in the Signal Hill and Lake Braddock precincts in Burke, VA (22015) . Good luck with the signs and working the polls on Election Day. I think we have some synergy going!
Sounds good George. Thanks again.
Matt, Thanks for the detailed information down to the precinct level. I was hoping you could do that. I will be sending a payment to LASPAC specifying the two precincts you suggested: Signal Hill and Lake Braddock precincts in Burke, VA (22015) precinct numbers 125 and 118 and let you know when the payment is made. If I lived back there I would be helping you with those signs, too.
Wes, instead of each of us inventing the wheel, how about you guys producing one that we can buy and mail? One side would be full color pro-Johnson info with the back like a standard postcard – address block and message block. I helped a good GOP state legislator candidate get several thousand of these out to neighbors in 2010 and he beat an incumbent by 215 votes.
I support everyone sending handwritten postcards to your Christmas/Holiday list. I just doubt more than maybe ten people in America will, but I could be wrong and don’t want to discourage the practice. Anybody plan to do it? ATBAFT, if you plan to do it, will you email a copy of one of yours to [email protected]? Also, do you know anyone else doing that? Thanks.
I’m not certain that one postcard coming from an anonymous stranger will be worth anything. Better to:
Send a postcard to your Christman/Holiday list with a nice handwritten note from you asking they “not waste their vote” on Obamney.
If you live in a state where voters can register Libertarian, then send postcards to them and ask them to send postcards to their friends.
Discussed on another recent thread.
George- I would say 22015 and 22003 are the ones to focus on, as they are easier for me to door hang. Unless you’re donating a ton of money though, I’d say we ought to just stick with 22015. All three of the zip codes border each other, and the main roads people drive on who live in each of them are the same (so they will all see our signage). I’ve worked the general area for several years with signs and door hangers. I ran for state house in the area in 2009, and we had another state house candidate in the area last year. So, people have been consistently seeing LP campaigns.
22015 is Burke, VA. 22003 is Annandale, VA. 22151 is part of Springfield, VA. All are cities in Fairfax County, VA – suburban DC.
I appreciate your help here George, and I am glad that we were able to coordinate through IPR comments ;-).
Once you’ve made your donation please let me know which zip code(s) you specified, and I will be sure to concentrate my efforts there. I’ll be watching the comments here, but you can also e-mail me directly at [email protected].
Finally, if you want to narrow it down to the precinct level (as I believe Wes can) I would say Signal Hill and Lake Braddock precincts in Burke, VA (22015) are best. These are precinct numbers 125 and 118, respectively. They both vote at the same place, so I typically work this polling place on election day.
Thanks again.
I asked for mine to be sent to the area around the University of Colorado Boulder 80309
Hi Matt, I live overseas (Seoul, Korea) and vote by absentee ballot in Florida. However, I don’t have much connection with my voting precinct since I registered there so long ago. So I will specify 22015, 22151, and 22003 when I make my donation. Is that the priority order? What counties or cities do they cover?
if you don’t want to participate don’t figure out what you are willing to do and do it. Don’t ever bitch about others who are doing something.
Now who’s neighborhood would I want to get hit with post cards….. Anybody have the Zip code for where Mitt lives?
Identify states in which a Libertarian vote will have a significant effect on ballot access, in a positive direction.
Agreed Zapper. I have been working those zip codes every year since 2008.
I’ll put it out there again- If anyone here (or anywhere, actually) needs to place to target with their postcard donation, I suggest 22015, 22151, and 22003. If you give me the heads up, I will target that area with my door hanging and signage efforts.
It sounds like Wes is able/willing to target specific precincts as well. If this is the case we can narrow it way down. In my experience, at the precinct level, even a small postcard campaign, combined with door hanging and signage will yield a noticeably higher vote total than neighboring precincts.
#9 Gary Johnson is starting to get some pretty good poll numbers in unexpected places like 17% in Point Pleasant, WV.
I am practically a resident. I live in Gallipolis, directly across the river in Ohio. Again, I assure you, there is no where near 17% support in Point Pleasant, WV, or the surrounding area. In fact, a more realistic guess may be that 17% of Point Pleasant has ever heard the word Libertarian before.
If internet polls were reliable, Ron Paul would be running for his second term.
New Hampshire!
Will you vote for Gary Johnson? http://celebrity-plugs.com/t/
@14 If you are combining yard signs, door hangers and mailing these postcards in some definable area – say your county or precinct – now you have a coordinated project that is worthwhile.
It would be even better under an umbrella of broadcast advertising – TV is best, Radio second – but using multiple methods of reaching voters on a regular basis over many years in the same area is the way to build the party.
I don’t think this will be that effective, if only because few will take up the offer in the first place, reducing any potential impact to minimal levels.
I took a quick glance at Bill-Board and Poster rates, which I think would be far superior for multiple reasons, but they don’t come cheap. Still, something that people will view coming to and thro on a daily basis (and only require a glance rather than listening to that specific radio station) to me has greater potential.
Albuquerque seems the best test case for such a method, given the rates seem reasonable, and is the main hub of New Mexico, which I assume is one of Johnson’s major targeted states.
George, if I were you I would choose my home zip code (or one near by) and do some door hanging with stuff from LASPAC or the campaign, and place some signs on the major roadways in the area. Simply sending one post card to a voter is unlikely to do much (though it is better than nothing, of course), but a more thorough marketing effort with door hanging and signage may do something.
Though I cannot afford $500 for postcards, I am using LASPAC signs and door hangers from both the PAC and the campaign to promote GJ in my little section of Northern Virginia.
Actually, if you want to coordinate with me, you can have your cards sent to 22015, 22151, or 22003 and I’ll focus my efforts with signs and door hangers there. Just let me know. If you’re of the opinion that focusing on battleground states is good, lets do it!
“Nifty postcard and nifty offer.”
If it was sent to the same carefully selected households multiple times it might have an effect.
@George Whitfield: 90210!
(just kidding)
I like this idea and I will participate. Now, I just need to choose the zip code. Where could I get the best and most effect from sending these postcards?
Is that the self-selecting internet polls again?
Gary Johnson is starting to get some pretty good poll numbers in unexpected places like 17% in Point Pleasant, WV. Let’s see how he does after his NYC affair tonight. An overnight boost might reinforce the idea that Gary Johnson will take as many votes from Democrats as he does Republicans.
Johnson 2016, hopefully.
Any other ideas on who can implement it?
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2012/05/zapper-lessons-from-americans-elect-collapse-opportunities-and-ad-strategy-for-libertarians/
An idea exists, who will implement it?
It will be interesting when this election is in the rear view mirror if anybody remembers anything about all the ideas zapper has contributed to this discourse. While I might not agree with all of them he (or she) seems to have looked at all the failures of the past and tried to show a different way to move forward. My guess is that personal attacks and ugly vilification will prevail as usual and in 2016 the LP will be right where it was in (pick any year).
Nifty postcard and nifty offer.
@2
An so-called unfocused project that exists beats a focused project that nobody can donate to. Not that there is anything wrong with critiquing a project you think will be inneffective.
Kudos to Wes and LASPAC for this effort.
The idea of testing the effects of this kind of stuff at the local/precinct level is very interesting.
I’ve often wondered what might happen if someone spent $10,000 on a particular town or small county and attempted to hit every likely voter with a nice pamphlet in the mail, a phone call, maybe a billboard or an ad in the county paper or saturating the little local radio station.
It might be PARTICULARLY interesting to target a rural county in New Mexico, where Johnson already starts on much more equal footing with the major party candidates.
Maybe it should say “Y’all pick the zipcode.” Then y’all that don’t want no scatter can focus.
1,000 postcards won’t accomplish much.
This is the kind of scattered, unplanned Libertarian activity that doesn’t yield any measurable increase in votes or party growth.
Not a bad idea but, alas, I don’t have $500. I hope my LP dues and $17.76 donation from the 4th was or will be put to good use.