[ad_1]
The Texas senator's re-election campaign sent voters from at least three counties a letter with a label stating that it was a legal summons. The Federal Election Commission says that it does not violate any rule.
Ted Cruz's Senate re-election campaign sent Texas voters a fundraising letter in a labeled envelope "Summation attached" criticizing some people for misleading it and raising questions as to whether such a practice was lawful. C & # 39; is.
According to Myles Martin, spokesperson for the Federal Election Commission, the most important question was whether a mailing contained a disclaimer saying that it came from a political campaign. And this one did it.
Apart from that, he said in an e-mail, "the regulations of the F.E.C. do not talk about how candidates can choose to formulate special solicitations to potential contributors ".
Mr. Cruz is engaged in an unexpected race against the representative Beto O'Rourke, Democrat of El Paso, in a traditionally conservative state. Earlier this month, one of President Trump's key advisers, Mick Mulvaney, the federal budget director, told a donor rally that it was possible that Mr. Cruz would not be re-elected because he was not "friendly".
A photo of one of the letters was posted on Twitter On Sunday, Sean Owen, a scientist who said he arrived at his home in Austin, Texas, was sent to his grandmother, who lived there until his death in April.
"My grandmother was experiencing a cognitive decline at the end of her life and I think if she read this, she could have been cheated, "he said in a phone interview. "He feels suspicious."
Confusion arises not only from the letter itself, but from the envelope in which it arrives.
The fundraising call is in an envelope with the words "SUMMONS ENCLOSED – OPEN IMMEDIATELY "written in capital letters. In the upper left corner are three lines of text: "Travis County Official Assignments, Voter Registration Campaign Division, Ted Cruz for the Senate in 2018."
And the return address? He says the "official summons" came from Senator Ted Cruz.
The letter inside the envelope is more clearly part of a fundraising effort. The Cruz campaign logo appears at the top of the letter and recipients are given the opportunity to give a preselected amount or write their own names.
The letter echoes its envelope, however, in its use of language – such as "campaign summons" and "conservative affirmation" – which seems more legal than familiar.
How many of these letters have been sent?
This is not clear. A spokesperson for Cruz's campaign did not respond to messages asking for comments on Monday.
Since Saturday, Twitter users in two Texas counties – Travis County, where Austin and Harris County, which hosts Houston – have posted online photos of the convocation letters.
But the campaign sends appeals of funds marked as assignments to voters since at least May, when The San Antonio News-Express challenged tactics in an editorial.
She called on the Cruz campaign to "rethink" the mailings and said that the recipients who received them might, at first glance, believe they were being prosecuted or sentenced to court. The mailings were labeled "Kerr County Official Convocations", after a county located outside of San Antonio.
In May, the Cruz campaign told The News-Express that she had sent "more than 50,000" fundraising letters to "likely supporters" in the San Antonio area alone. He said the mailings were "both effective and essential in identifying and mobilizing our supporters".
Mr. Martin, at the FEC, said that he could not say if someone had complained about the mailers because "the federal election campaign law requires that the business whose commission is seizure remain confidential until resolved. "
What is the effectiveness of mailings like this one?
The impact of eyebrow awareness campaign shipments can be difficult to assess.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Mr. Cruz had the reputation of indulging in dirty tricks. One of them was a letter he had sent to Iowa voters before the Republican caucuses of that state – which Mr. Cruz had won – by informing them of "non-voting" voting violations.
The letter stated that the recipient had an infrequent voting record, which is not a violation, and included the names of the recipient and his neighbors with a "score" based on their record of attendance. They said they could improve their score by voting in caucuses and warned that "a follow-up notice could be issued" once the meetings are over.
According to a 2008 study by political scientists Alan S. Gerber, Donald P. Green and Christopher W. Larimer, this type of social pressure can be effective in stimulating participation.
They said that shipments such as the one sent by Mr. Cruz in 2016 are "an order of magnitude more effective" than other political mailings because they threaten to make people shameful not to vote. But the fundraising letter sent by Cruz's campaign in recent weeks does not do that.
Liam Stack is a political journalist. Before joining the political team, he was general reporter in New York and correspondent for the Middle East in Cairo. @liamstack
[ad_2]
Source link
