I received in my inbox earlier this week the following e-mail solicitation from Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla of San Antonio(who is not my current congressman at either of my last two registered addresses. Emphasis mine.
Dear Constituent:
As your representative in Congress, I am requesting your permission to send you a few email updates every month. These communications will focus on the important issues facing Congress today.
The Internet has provided us an opportunity to speak to you directly and brings you a new way to be heard.
If you do not wish to have me contact you via email or if you believe you have received this message in error, please click the link below and your name will be permanently deleted from the email list.
Sincerely,
Henry Bonilla
Member of Congress
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This email is an official communication of a Member of Congress.
This communication does not represent in any way a commercial solicitation.
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You are receiving this e-mail as a registered voter in Texas. If you do not wish to receive periodic e-mail, please click here to be immediately removed from our list.
First, I thought that solicitation like this has to be opt-in, which it clearly is not. Any action I can take on the e-mail it to opt-out.
Secondly, why did I get the e-mail when I'm not in the district? I'm sure there are data companies out there that sell matched addresses to physical addresses so either mine was done incorrectly or he has sent this to all registered voters in Texas.
Thirdly, if he has sent this to all registered voters in Texas, is it part of plan to increase name ID for a statewide run for something other than Senate now that Sen. Hutchison is running for re-election, the seat he wanted?
Fourth, in any case, is this something that every Republican member of Congress is doing in a way possibly to extend their Franking privileges to the Internet in order to build another arena for the Republican Noise Machine? And if this is legal, would it be possible for Democrats to do as well?
