Or you could get him a tie
December 14th, 2007 – 11:45 AM by Dennis J. McGrathThis priceless political fundraising pitch was forwarded to me by colleague Howard Sinker.
It’s an e-mail from Gayle Kagen, wife of Wisconsin Democratic Congressman Steve Kagen: “I’m so proud of my husband…Steve’s 58th birthday is this week. It would be a wonderful gift for Steve to see how many people are behind him and want to keep him in Congress by sending a birthday donation to his re-election campaign fund.”
Don’t you think Steve would be just as touched if you sent him a tie, or even a musical greeting card? And by the way, don’t breathe a word of this to him; I’m sure Gayle thought this up and sent out the e-mail all by herself.
You’ll be happy to know that, if you send a check, Gayle will allow you to do this, too: “You can also include a note of thanks with your donation if you wish.”
While I’m at it, here’s a snippet from a recent fundraising appeal from Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who relies on the tried and true approach of hoping to cash in by raising the spectre of his opponent — Democrat Al Franken — actually winning:
“You see, Franken is trying to clean up his act. Reinvent himself. He’s cut down on the profanity. Instead of cussing out Republicans he now calls for bipartisanship. Instead of crude jokes about political opponents, he talks civility.
“Liberal donors from across the country get the joke. They know that, if elected, the venomous, deeply partisan Al Franken they know and love will come out on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
If you have fundraising e-mails or letters that you’re particularly fond of, by all means share them here — or send them to me as the campaign wears on. You can e-mail them to PoliticallyConnected@startribune.com, or mail them to:
Dennis McGrath
Editor, Politically Connected
Minneapolis Star Tribune
425 Portland Ave.
Minneapolis, MN. 55488
4 Responses to "Or you could get him a tie"
What a disgusting example of shameless groveling.
I wonder how people would have reacted to a hand written plea coming from a candidates wife prior to the electronic age?
Kind of hard to think of Jackie O licking envelopes containing that message.
“..the venomous, deeply partisan Al Franken they know and love will come out…”
Verses the calculating, cosmetically partisan Norm Coleman? Whatta choice!
(I’m stealing “birthday donation”. I really like that one.)
Norm is reported as writing
“You see, Franken is trying to clean up his act. Reinvent himself.”
Wasn’t Norm a roadie for Lynard Skynard or something like that? I recall an interview on MPR back in his mayoral days where he joked about his liberal youth. So, in terms of trying to ‘reinvent’ oneself, perhaps he who is ‘without sin’ should cast the first stone…
It was Ten Years After.
This is from a Star Tribune story in June, when a marijuana activist and former classmate of Coleman’s posted a letter on the Internet about the senator’s past drug use:
“Revelations about youthful marijuana use are not new for Coleman,
a former campus radical and roadie with the 1960s rock band Ten
Years After. The issue came up during his 1998 gubernatorial
campaign, when Coleman admitted smoking marijuana 28 years before.”