Campaign Spam
A plea for money landed in my inbox today from a Democrat candidate for office in Michigan’s seventh district ( website) ( weblog). It contained no information on where the candidate got my name. I sent him a note back asking where he got my name, and (gently) suggested he seek advice on Internet marketing etiquette before he sent out another such message. You know, on the theory that spam bugs a hell of a lot of people, behaving like a spammer was likely to turn a couple of people off, and the increasing flood of spam was an major concern of many (after war and torture).
The response I got back was…informative (and in the extended entry).
——————————-
Dear John,
I’m not sure where your name came from, but it had to be in a public forum on the web since I don’t have the funding to go after private lists.
If you ould not like to hear from me again, that is fine, but now that until we put some understanding individuals into offices at the highest leve, you nor anyone else on the streets of this great country will be able to rest about tortur or false wars.
If we don’t vote Bush out you proabaly can count on a coupl more wars and a draft since we cannot keep up with the human needs for this war machine.
There are certain “ettiquette” and ethics issues for candidates and aside from your feeling of invasion for which I apologize, there is nothing that says we cannot contact consituents…just as we may go beyongd the “do not call lists”…
Again, my apologies if you feel violated. My intentions are purely honorable. If you feel you’re getting all the representation you need from our government, please disregard my polite polite request for aid.
Sincerely,
Douglas Wilson
Just remember…there are people tortured here in America in places like foster care and nursing homes every day of the week and please don’t forget them in your thoughts either…
—————————-
Obviously, I agree with him on several points. But I take issue with a number of items.
- I’m not his constituent because I don’t live in Michigan.
- As near as I can tell he has no constituents yet, as he is not a sitting congressman, so I don’t think he’s exempt from spamming laws or basic etiquette.
- I don’t think harvesting emails from public forums for personal marketing purposes is ever justified, and I suspect some state laws would side with me on that.
- Honorable intentions go hand in hand with honorable behavior. I thought this was simple ignorance, but now it seems to me that Mr. Wilson has just decided he is above being polite.
What do you think? Disturbing trend? Or am I just being touchy?
