Examples of Campaign Mistakes:
LATE MAIL: I received a slick direct mail piece from Angel Rivera. On the front, Rivera appears to be talking with two voters. On the back are endorsement statements from Governor Daniels, Mayor Ballard as well as a listing of positions he's held. On both sides of the mailer is a statement encouraging the recipient to cast a vote for Rivera on May 3rd. I received it on May 5th, today. The post office bulk mail notice says it was mailed from area code 46802. That's Fort Wayne. Not sure why Rivera had to go to Fort Wayne to have a company do his direct mail. Nonetheless, unlike First Class Mail, bulk mail is not a priority and basically gets delivered whenever they get around to it. If you use bulk mail for a campaign, you should take it to the post office at least two weeks before the election.
DATING YARD SIGNS: Mayoral candidate Ron Gibson put May 3rd, the date of the primary election on his yard signs which meant he couldn't use them again. Really anyone who is too dumb to figure out when the primary is, probably isn't going to vote. Sometimes people put ballot positions on their yard signs and handouts. I don't get that either.
- NO CANDIDATE WEBSITES ON YARD SIGNS: I don't get this. It doesn't cost any more to put the websites on the signs and from what I've seen people actually will look up the website off a yard sign to find out more about the candidate. They will often email the campaign and offer support if they like what they see on the website. So why in the world do people leave it off their yard signs? The price is the same. Speaking of which, now that I look at Rivera's direct mail piece, there is no website or even an email address. What is this the early 1990s?
- CAMPAIGN COLORS: I found it interesting that the every candidate seemed to have a different color yard sign. (Here I'm only talking about at-large council races, and the mayor candidates.) Boy have things changed from the old days of just blue and red. I thought Kennedy had the best looking sign, though Pat Andrews had the best design. The Republican at-large signs were too plain and of course no websites. I think Malone's signs are orrange. Pretty ugly. I'm not sure whether I like or dislike Ballard's black signs. There is a person who should definitely have had his website on his sign. That is yet more evidence the Ballard campaign people don't have a clue what they are doing.
I may add more later.
Examples of Campaign Mistakes: