June 03, 2009 10:38 PM UTC

Failure to Launch-HD4 Edition

•  
• by: Highland_mommie

Proving that Scott McInnis wasn’t the only politician reading from the Wiley E. Coyote playbook for campaign announcements, Democrats in House District 4 were treated to a series of bizarre fundraising emails from Jennifer Coken, former Denver County Chair and North Denver newbie, who’s running for state house.

Email text is below the fold:

[No Subject]

May 17, 2009

Dear [Redacted]:

You already know that I have a long record working on common sense solutions to empower communities, fighting to preserve our environment, promoting job creation, and opening educational opportunities for our kids.   Today, I hope you will help me bring these real-world experiences to bear as State Representative in House District 4.

However, my long and direct experience building and promoting livable communities will not, in and of itself, win a political campaign. In order to mount an aggressive run, I need your support. That is I’m asking you for an early contribution to help us launch a successful campaign.  

. . .

The battle in Denver County is a primary battle – two worthy opponents have already announced their intentions to run, but neither has my experience, passion or ability to produce results. [Emphasis added]  

. . .

Thanks in advance for your kind encouragement and generous support. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes,

Beyond the obvious slip of blasting out a plea for money without a subject line, Coken also sent the email from her nonprofit work address, which if not a major campaign finance violation, is certainly a PR faux pas.

But compounding the error a few hours later, Coken sent a “recall” of her original untitled message to the whole list, followed later in the day with an apology for the original mistake:

Subject: Please Accept My Apology

Dear Friends:  Many of you received this email two times from my work

email account. I meant to send it only once from my personal account and

unfortunately experienced technical difficulties.  Please accept my

apology. This won’t happen again.  Best, Jennifer

Call it what you will — technical difficulties, campaigning too much at the office, or overzealous mouse clicking-this email marked the first official communication from the Coken campaign to a list of potential supporters.  It was a clumsy mistake transmitted not once, but three times in the span of an afternoon to people who will no doubt be asked again to bankroll the enterprise.  Maybe the first expenditure should be some software for mass emailing.

The ironic thing about the whole misadventure is that Coken’s message focuses on “results,” which at its most basic level signals some sort of competence for the job.  What we see instead, however, is a reminder that even candidates running on experience and results should check the fuse before they launch.