AND they will keep doing it UNTIL it is outlawed!!!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/e1618.htmGOP defends census mailer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican National Committee defended its use of a fund-raising mailing that includes a GOP-specific census form that Democrats contend trivializes the Census Bureau's efforts to count the country's population.
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Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., asked the Postal Service to investigate the six-page document mailed to party members in an envelope emblazoned with the phrase ''REPUBLICAN CENSUS DOCUMENT ENCLOSED.'' Maloney demanded Tuesday that RNC chairman Jim Nicholson end the mailing immediately.
''At a time when we are engaged in a once-a-decade civic ceremony, the RNC, in a shameful attempt to capitalize on our national count, is soliciting funds under the banner of the census,'' said Maloney, ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee's census panel.
RNC spokesman Mike Collins called the criticism a ''partisan cheap shot.''
''How could anybody be confused by that?'' Collins said. ''No one was confused by this piece of mail. It was clearly a fund-raising and legitimate participation piece.''
The latest squabble between Republicans and Democrats over Census 2000 comes just as the Census Bureau readies 440,000 temporary workers to gather information from 42 million households that did not mail back census forms. That operation begins Thursday.
In a letter Tuesday to Postmaster General William Henderson, Maloney said that ''while the content of the enclosed letter does not resemble an official census questionnaire, it is worth noting that nowhere on the mailing does it clarify that this solicitation has no connection whatsoever to the 2000 Census.''
The first page of the cover letter is written on Republican National Committee letterhead, and the bottom of the page reads the phrase ''Not printed at taxpayers' expense. Paid for by the RNC.''
U.S. Postal Inspector Daniel Mihalko said he had yet to see the RNC mailing.
Census Director Kenneth Prewitt also said he had not seen the mailing. He had been critical of a mailing earlier this year by the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation which the Postal Service said implied a connection to the federal government.
''Anything at this stage of the census which creates confusion about the authentic census would harm the census,'' Prewitt said. ''I would urge anyone engaged in mass mailing to refrain from any kind of mailing that could be confused to appear like a census form.''
The fund-raising letter is addressed ''Dear Republican'', and was sent out on April 10, the day before a deadline to mail back Census Bureau questionnaires, said Chip Walker, spokesman for census subcommittee chairman Rep. Dan Miller, R-Fla.
The form poses questions such as ''Do you favor abolishing our current tax system?'', and ''Should Congress work to outlaw so-called 'homosexual marriages?'''
''It's hypocrisy, but even more than that, it's downright misleading,'' Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jenny Backus said.
But Walker called the criticism ''much ado about nothing.
''It's very clear that this mailing is from the RNC,'' he said. ''In no place does it encourage people not to send in their (Census Bureau) forms.''
Earlier this month, several leading Republicans including aides to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said they had suggested to constituents concerned about their privacy being invaded to skip those questions they might find intrusive.
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