Politicians Hit Voters With Direct Mail With 1 Week Until Election Day
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Minnesota is one week out from Election Day, and many political campaigns are going "old school."
Thousands of Minnesota mailboxes are filling up with campaign literature.
Direct mail pieces that you may not like, but which experts say may sway your vote.
It's hard to escape the campaign ads on television.
But now, for many Minnesotans the message is also in the mail.
Millions of mailers have been sent out to thousands of voters.
"Well, I think it is effective," Ben Golnik said.
Ben Golnik is a Republican political strategist who is targeting voters in specific legislative districts with mailers against Obamacare.
"You can really slice and dice this data and get to a very specific universe of voters. So, instead of sending a blanket one to 15,000 or 18,000 household in the whole district, maybe you're sending three mailing to groups of 4,000 to 5,000 households," Golnik said.
Minnesota Democrats mass-mailed one hit piece in the 8th Congressional District unmasking Stewart Mills as a Packers fan.
Republicans sent out one claiming Democratic Senator Al Franken isn't concerned about Ebola.
Some even caught the eye of county attorneys.
Dakota County attorney James Backstrom says one GOP mailing is a "scare piece" and not true.
The piece claims Democrats who voted for a criminal record expungement bill to allow felons to work with school children.
"The bill only applies to non-violent, non-person crimes, low level felony property offense and some misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor offenses that don't involve crimes against persons," Backstrom said.
Experts WCCO talked told us they have just a few seconds to grab your attention with mailers; from the time you take it out of the mailbox until it goes into the recycling bin.
This is why so much of it is scary, or funny.
It makes you take a second look.