Presenting The Worst Mail Piece of 2019

14 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

This is a mail piece we were forwarded over the weekend from Americans For Prosperity, the national conservative message group with ties to the Koch political empire which has emerged as the principal opponent of Proposition CC on this year’s statewide ballot. We’ve paid quite a bit of attention in the last week or so to a major falsehood being circulated by Prop CC opponents, suggesting that the measure will “take away your tax refunds” with no distinction between the small and infrequent TABOR refunds which are the subject of Prop CC and the much more common income tax overpayment refunds millions of Americans get every year.

But here we have a very different approach: a mailer that says nothing whatsoever. There are literally no arguments against Prop CC to be found, just a bizarre non sequitur from voting “no” to taking your family skiing. The illustrations on the ad appear to be colored in with crayons by a young child. This isn’t the only message voters are getting on Proposition CC, of course, but this particular piece is more of an insult to voter’s intelligence than it is helpful for any kind of persuasion.

AFP’s bottomless pockets give their local operatives the resources to basically throw messages blindly at the proverbial wall to see what sticks. But not only is there a point of diminishing return as voters get saturated with competing messages, there’s a point where you’re actually doing more harm than good. Here’s one that should have never made it past the first draft.

14 thoughts on “Presenting The Worst Mail Piece of 2019”

skeptical citizen says:

October 28, 2019 at 10:12 am

Wonder if they consulted the Recall-Fail crew

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2Jung2Die says:

October 28, 2019 at 11:01 am

Are they trying to illustrate that this poor kid who's dressed like someone who'll be staying with family in a Vail liftside condo over the holidays at $300+/night plus expensive meals plus lift tickets plus gas for the SUV will have to sacrifice anything at all because of CC? Anyhow, that's the vibe I'm getting.

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ParkHill says:

October 28, 2019 at 11:31 am

My Facebook feed keeps showing me a Spanish language advertisement against CC, pretending to be from a woman "Yuli" from Severance. I assume they change the town depending on your location.

The claim is that CC would affect school revenue. Ahem… I would say it would improve school revenue. Does that make it a lie?

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1. 2Jung2Die says:
  
  October 28, 2019 at 11:35 am
  
  Sounds like a lie to me! Would love to see a screen shot though
  
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2. 2Jung2Die says:
  
  October 28, 2019 at 12:51 pm
  
  Found Yuli's Facebook page, it's fairly full of right-wing posts including stuff about socialism and guns. I didn't see any fact-based argument as to how CC would negatively impact education, and it's estimated to put a couple hundred million into both K-12 and higher education over the next couple years.
  
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3. DavidThi808 says:
  
  October 28, 2019 at 1:35 pm
  
  CC would affect school revenue
  
  That's an accurate statement. Improving school revenue is affecting it. They just don't mention that the affect is positive for schools.
  
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Meiner49er says:

October 28, 2019 at 11:59 am

So, "Vote like we tell you and then you can go back to ignoring politics (while we rob you blind)." Yup, sounds like a Koch brothers mailer to me!

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JohnInDenver says:

October 28, 2019 at 12:52 pm

Individually, it is inconsequential for most: "The average refund each state income taxpayer would receive [from] that $310 million would be about $37, , Becker said." So, definitely NOT a way to pay for a family ski trip.

Collectively, it makes a difference.

the Legislature’s nonpartisan staff economists projected voter approval of Referendum CC would allow the state to keep and spend an estimated $310 million in the July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 state budget year, the first fiscal year it would be in effect.

Under the spending formula set in the measure, the state would spend about $103 million of that $310 million on public schools, $103 million on public colleges and universities and $103 million on state and local highway, road, street and transit projects.

Now, $103 million won't do much to address the tremendous backlog of state capital spending for schools, colleges and universities, or transportation. But it will be more than the penurious amounts now spent.

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Diogenesdemar says:

October 28, 2019 at 1:29 pm

You people . . .

. . . that faux-crayon mailer is clearly aimed at a different target audience than you hopeless liberals. It’s obviously gonna’ take a real imbecile to explain what this mail piece means . . .

. . . light up the batshit signal — calling Moderatus, calling Moderatus, . . .

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1. kwtree says:
  
  October 28, 2019 at 1:37 pm
  
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DavidThi808 says:

October 28, 2019 at 1:36 pm

I think it's potentially effective. People respond with their reptile brain to a lot of stuff. It's all emotional, not logic.

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Moderatus says:

October 28, 2019 at 2:03 pm

What's an insult to voter intelligence?

TELLING THEM A TAX INCREASE DOESN'T RAISE TAXES.

NO ON CC

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1. unnamed says:
  
  October 28, 2019 at 2:10 pm
  
  What's insulting to voter intelligence is telling them that the state using the meager TABOR refunds they almost never get IS a tax increase.
  
  You know what else is a tax increase? That joke of a Tax reform bill that your party passed at the end of 2017. It raised my taxes and I'm middle class. So, I don't need to hear about tax increases from a stooge from the party that raised my taxes.
  
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2. MichaelBowman says:
  
  October 28, 2019 at 2:17 pm
  
  Why is it that for every attempted assault on voter intelligence from Americans for Prosperity there's a thousand dumbfuq underlings with the brains of gnat willing to repeat their propaganda? (I'm looking at you Fluffy)
  
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