Bush campaign to use hand written letter to convince undecideds

AROUND THE BLOCK

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Jeb Bush Super Pac to Send Hand-Written Letter to Voters

Hail-Mary called desperation move as surveys indicate majority of people don't read letters

In a move some observers believe to be akin to a football "hail-Mary", the New York Times reported today that Jeb Bush's Super Pac, Right to Rise, asked Bush supporters to " to revive the lost art of writing letters" by sending hand-written letters to undecided New Hampshire voters to support Jeb.

According to the Times, in a pre-holiday mailer, the group thanked its donors for their financial support, and asked them to make “a different kind of gift to Jeb by giving a few minutes of your time.” The Times reported, “The mailer included stationery and pre-addressed envelopes for five undecided voters in New Hampshire. It urged donors to dash off a quick missive explaining why Mr. Bush deserved their vote.  The mailer, according to the Times, included a sample message. It is not clear whether the mailer included stamps. When asked about stamps a Right to Rise spokesperson, Delores de la Rosa said, "No, stamps were not included. Look, we're burning through money here. The least these people can do is spend $.15 on a stamp", seemingly unaware that the current first-class postage is now $.49 and hasn't been $.15 since 1980, the year Jeb's father, George H.W. Bush was elected vice-president.

Speaking of whom, in using the technique of hand-written letters, the Bush group is attempting to echo former president George H.W. Bush, who was a voracious letter writer when he was younger. The elder Bush, now 91, said that he thought writing letters by hand for the campaign was a bully good idea, saying, "it worked for me in '92, why wouldn't it work for Jeb now", apparently not remembering that he lost that campaign even though hand-writing letters was arguably more common, but at a time before social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were invented, and even before the wide-spread use of email and the Internet.

When asked to comment, Jeb's older brother, former president George W. Bush was not as sanguine about the idea. While clearly not fully cognizant of the definition of sanguine, Bush went on to say, "I never hand-writed a letter in my life and I have no idea why Jeb's people think this is a good idea. I mean, isn't that what you have secretaries for...to take dictation and then type it out. And hand-writed letters can be so hard to read and all. Bad idea, Jeb, bad idea." W. ended his comments by saying, "What Jeb really needs is someone like Cheney to whip him into shape. I mean, look what he did for me."

Media consultant A.J. Ruckelhaus, in commenting on this tactic by Right to Rise opined “it sounds like a desperation move”. Ruckelhaus went on to say that he’s done research on hand-writing. “In my research less than 12% of the general public hand-writes at all and less than 3% hand-writes and sends letters. His survey further indicated that when looking at the key demographics necessary for a Republican to win the election, adults 18-34,  the numbers drop to less than 4% and less than .5% respectively.

Moving from the writing to the receiving, Around The Block’s  political polling consultant, Acme Polls,  reported that 56% of respondents say they immediately trash anything that comes in the mail. Of the 44% who actually look at their mail 83% say they only read the flyers, brochures and offers from credit card companies offering 0% interest or less, with anything that looks hand written, immediately thrown out.

Undaunted by statistics and polling, Right to Rise believes it's on the right track, saying that after this letter-writing campaign concludes they intend to send Jeb out to all subsequent campaign events in a horse and buggy and have vowed to use no electrically amplified devices at the events, only megaphones.