(sigh) I admit it: I chickened out.
I just approved the final run of 6,000 more lit pieces to be run and bulk-mailed out next week.
Until now, I’ve been using a fairly standard positive bio/issues piece...pics of me & the family, some bio/background info, bullet points about the key issues I want to address, etc. Pretty normal boilerplate.
While I’ve had no problem talking about my opponent’s support of Trump on Twitter, Facebook and here at dKos, I decided not to bring it up on my print pieces. She has high name recognition in the district; I have none, so going negative right off the bat seemed unwise, in addition to not being my style. Better to introduce myself first so people have some idea of who I am, what I hope to accomplish if elected, etc.
However, more recently, and especially since the most recent horrifying Trump revelations (#GrabEmByTheP*ssy, a baker’s dozen of women accusing him of sexual assault, refusing to accept the outcome of the election, etc), I’ve become increasingly tempted to push hard on my opponent’s continuing support of Trump for President. She officially pledged her support for “the Republican nominee” in late June, but I’ve confirmed that she still supports him as recently as about a week ago. At the very least, she has yet to issue any sort of public statement rescinding her support of Trump, so until I hear otherwise, I have to assume that she still does.
With that in mind, I decided it was time to hit her with it in my last print run. I had two options: Either a piece fully devoted to the Shelley Taub’s support of Donald Trump...or my existing piece, modified to mention her support of Trump as more of an aside (if a prominent one). Since the final 6,000 pieces are going to different voters than the rest, no one is getting a duplicate; every targeted voter is receiving just 1 of the 2 standard versions.
I decided to go the second route (see below for both the front & back).
With this final run, I’m pretty much tapped out funding-wise. I’m not complaining; I raised about as much as I was targeting (thanks in large part to you guys), and once these go out I’ll have reached about 30,000 voters in all (I need around 19,000 to win).
However, just for the hell of it, I thought I’d let you see what I had in mind for the other piece I was considering. I haven’t even thought about what I’d put on the back of it yet; probably an open letter reiterating the laundry list of Trump ugliness or something.
Anyway, I’m putting this out there as an open poll. If the response is overwhelmingly in favor of something like the version above, I’ll consider having a special run made...but there’s a catch: As I said, I’m pretty much tapped out at this point. I’d need something like $5,000 more to get it sent out to around 12,000 households (roughly 20,000 voters).
The clock is ticking, and I don’t really have any other significant expenditures in mind between now and Nov. 8th, so I’m leaving it up to you: Vote in the poll below and, if you’re so inclined, make a contribution. I’ll check in over the next day or two and will announce my decision early next week.
Before you vote, remember: This is literally Mitt Romney’s hometown. That means that a) it’s heavily Republican (about 2:1 GOP), but also b) they don’t really like Trump one little bit either. Call it the last refuges of the non-insane GOP, if you will. I really have no idea how well/poorly either approach will go over.
Note: If you do make a donation but I don’t end up sending out the “full Trump” mailer, I’ll make sure the funds are still used wisely, perhaps for a Facebook campaign or something similar.