Republican Senate Committee Fundraising Raises Eyebrows

[hadrons]

A poster at Blue NC outlines questionable fundraising direct mail sent under the signature of North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The language is very "official" and demanding.

Southern Dem writes: I "have a problem with them passing off a fundraiser as a tax document, requiring that it be returned and then not allowing for a way to return it without sending money. It is basically a bill and it is delivered in a very intimidating and threatening tone." For example:

DO NOT DESTROY YOUR SURVEY! The enclosed Republican Senate Leadership Survey is an OFFICIAL REPUBLICAN PARTY DOCUMENT. Your Survey is REGISTERED IN YOUR NAME ONLY and MUST BE ACCOUNTED FOR upon completion of this project.

Moreover, "here are no options given to return the survey without enclosing money for the NRSC." Instead, there are three options:

· Yes! I want to help defend our Republican Senate Majority and build a strong foundation of Republican grassroots support for President Bush and his agenda.I am enclosing my most generous contribution of: __$500 __$250 __$100 __$50 __$25 __Other$____

· No. I do not wish to participate in this vital Republican Senate Leadership Survey. however, I am returning my Survey Document, along with a generous donation to help build Republican grassroots support for President Bush and his agenda. I am enclosing a donation of: __$500 __$250 __$100 __$50 __$25 __Other$___

· No. I do not wish to particiapte in the Survey, nor do I wish to make a donation to help the Republican Party. I am returning my Survey Document, along with a contribution of $11 to help cover the cost of tabulating and redistributing my Survey.

Such questionable fundraising tactics were recently associated with the College Republican National Committee (CRNC), which in 2004 (according to the Seattle Times) "raised $6.3 million this year through an aggressive and misleading fund-raising campaign that collected money from senior citizens who thought they were giving to the election efforts of President Bush and other top Republicans.... And little of the money went to election efforts."

The vast majority of the money raised stayed with RDI - Resource Dynamics, Inc., which had managed fundraising for the CRNC since 1992. RDI has no easily-found website, if it still exists.

If taken to task, will the NRSC also blame its poorly managed direct mail firm? (This was the tactic taken by the CRNC in 2005.)

....

http://uspolitics.about.com/b/a/207640.htm

on one hand its sleazy (typical Republican tactic), but on the other anyone stupid enough to give them money deserves to be taken advantage of

[MADem]

1. I got one of those once, addressed to my dead dog!!!!!!!!

No shit--I had a dog with a "human" name, and I'd use him when signing up for grocery store or drugstore discount cards (I made him a Doctor, too--hell, he was adept at making us all feel better).

I filled it out, as negatively as possible, signed it with the dog's name and a flourish, and in the amount that said OTHER ______ I penned in $0.00....

[starroute]

2. I posted about this last week

The firm responsible for this appears to be Response Consulting. Their chief copywriter formerly worked for Response Dynamics (the firm which sent out the fundraising letters for the College Republicans -- as well as for Abramoff's pals at NCPPR.)

Their site doesn't seem to be coming up at the moment -- I don't know if they got scared and took it down -- but the url is http://www.responsehq.com/ and you can find a copy of the site in the Internet Archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20050206025751/http://responsehq.com/