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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Putting his old constituents in cages

Outside of the hilarious burn rate we see in Jim Ryun's fundraising report (he's spent 75% of the money he raised in 2007), we're horrified to see in it three unique expenditures for "caging."

Caging, as you remember from posts here and on Blue Tide Rising, and on other blogs nationwide, is a practice by which registered mail is sent to a poor person, a college student, or someone serving in the armed services, at the address provided by them on their voter registration card in hopes that that letter comes back undeliverable.

If it does come back undeliverable, the campaign logs that name and address, and will use that information to contest that person's vote come election day.

Not only is it unethical to attempt to deny someone their vote, it's also illegal.

Now, the Kansas Republican Party tried, and I'm sure Ryun will as well, to convince people "caging" is just a mailing term and that nothing untoward is occurring.

That just doesn't jive, though. To quote the web site of one of the firms Ryun has used:

We don't engage in creative design, printing or lettershop services. We don't sell mailing lists or involve ourselves in fundraising management. No, we do just one thing- caging.
How a man hoping to be the representative of the people can actively engage in disenfranchising voters is beyond us, and we hope the mainstream media nails him to the wall for it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

jesus...these bastards just never learn, do they?

Anonymous said...

How stupid can he be, to after all the controversy over Kobach's email, to CALL IT CAGING. Good lord, we always knew he was an idiot, but this takes the cake.

Anonymous said...

god, this man is desperate, isn't he?

Anonymous said...

Well nothing like taking partial statements from the website and not giving a true picture of what the company does.

IT IS NOT CAGING IN THE TERMS YOU ARE USING AND YOU KNOW IT.

Take a look at the website and discover this article is crap.

Here is how this company is using the term "caging". They are a company that processes direct mail fundraisers.

"Caging, also known as cashiering or lockbox services, is so named because its employees used to work in cages for security purposes. Today, the term defines the process by which mail generated from a direct mail campaign is opened, and donations are processed and deposited."

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmmmm

After looking over the website further ... it looks like this story lacks accuracy ..... the same thing accusation you make about the USA Today article

Anonymous said...

spin it however you want, republicans, this is just more of the same- just like Kobach, you're party will stop at nothing to win an election.

Anonymous said...

The republicans HAVE TO lie and cheat to win elections, because if they told potential voters what their real plans are they'd never get elected. So they lie and make up benign-sounding terms like "compassionate conservative" that mean absolutely nothing, but sound good as soundbytes.

Anonymous said...

and Democrats have to make shit up because they can't win based on their positions on issues.

This blog is not affiliated in any way with the Kansas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, the Office of Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, or the campaign to re-elected Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. All commentary herein not directly attributed must be considered the opinion of the authors of this blog and not of any other individual, including Congresswoman Nancy Boyda.