What pisses me off about campaign solicitations is the shear number

[AndyS]

of them. Okay, so I reply "stop" like the text says. Guess what, I get the same text with the same sig from a different phone number. I reply "stop". Another text, same same, from ANOTHER phone number. Won't call names but he's running against Hershel Walker and rhymes with nock. I like the guy, okay, but I've got other battles to fight.

Texts from 8 different phone numbers. Isn't that supposed to illegal?

[pwb]

1. Give with a U.S. Postal Service money order that way

they don't know who you are.

[femmedem]

8. Campaign finance laws require campaigns to know who is donating. n/t

[pwb]

9. Yes and with a money order all

you give them is a street address. Any Junk mail response doesn't annoy you all day with pings and e-mail.

[femmedem]

11. Ah! I just learned that providing a phone numbe when you donate is optional! Thanks n/t

[texasfiddler]

2. I get the stuff all of the time. I ignore it. Now if a GOP tries it, that is another story.

It is annoying. But I am personally more concerned about the GOP winning and keeping power through authoritarian means. I'm weird that way.

[AndyS]

4. I'm with you on all of that but the text says "text stop" then a window

pops up and says "you will no longer receive texts" and then it comes from another number. I so respond with contributions to the ones I'm involved in. Not enough for everybody tho.

[texasfiddler]

7. I agree text stop should work. Groups helping Dems should know this is not helpful.

I give to a group of key important Senate and House Democratic Candidates each month via Act Blue. I am not moved by any text or email. Some of them are over the top and kind of funny. Dems take the lead or GOP set to win it all or We are so disappointed you haven't responded or This is the third time we have asked you to give etc... It is not helpful.

[Pobeka]

3. Hmm. Maybe there's something else at work.

Based on my sample of 1 (me).

I never, ever give via a text. I reply "stop" anytime they try. I get very few each campaign season.

If I was working on an algorithm to decide who to send a text to (and probably all D's use the same information), one thing I'd want to know is does this number *ever* donate to anyone after a text (regardless of who it is)?

So, if you donate to other candidates during a campaign via text messages, you may be more likely to keep getting them from even the same candidate under the guise of a different sender.

My problem is the 30+ emails I am getting a day now. But at least I don't get email on my phone so I get to those when I want, not when something beeps at me.

[Raine]

5. I refused to let them text me

emailing is bad enough sending me continuous repeated email clogging up the whole box. I've taken to unsubscribing them as fast as I can.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. We need to reform campaigning. ...

It's been bad for quite a while.

Fritz Hollings and Money in Politics
July 25, 2008

BILL MOYERS: For more on money and politics, let’s go now to a man who saw first hand how the city’s money chase has crippled and corrupted Washington.

His name is Ernest ‘Fritz’ Hollings, and he spent 38 years in the United States Senate – a long and colorful run during which he made a name for himself as a passionate advocate for the hungry, a champion of balanced budgets, and a fighter for jobs in the textile industry. He called it quits four years ago and went home to South Carolina. But he was back in town recently, to see old friends and sign his new book, MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK. I talked with Fritz Hollings at a Senate office building on Capitol Hill just before his book party. Why did you write this book now?

FRITZ HOLLINGS: I wrote the book because I could see what was wrong. I was raising money. I wasn’t running for reelection.

BILL MOYERS: As a senator in your last term.

FRITZ HOLLINGS: As a senator in the last two or three years that’s all I was doing was raising money. And working for the campaign and for the party. The hardest working people in the world are the congressmen and senators. We work from early morning ’til late at night and all weekend and everything else. But we are working now, not for the country, but for the campaign.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

FRITZ HOLLINGS: All the time is fundraisers. All the time is money, money, money, money. In 1998, ten years ago, I ran and had to raise 8 an a half million. The record is there. Eight and a half million is 30,000 a week. Every week for six years. Each and every week for six years. Oh Dick Russell of Georgia-

BILL MOYERS: Former senator.

FRITZ HOLLINGS: He says, “Now a senator is given a six year term rather than a two year term. He’s given six years, the first two years to be a statesman. Then the second two years to be a politician. His last two years a demagogue.” We use all six years to raise money. That’s why I wrote the book. To try to get the government off its fanny and cut out all the politics and let’s work for the country for a change.

[ ... ]

[DFW]

10. I met Fritz Hollings

Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham can be thankful that Hollings died a few years ago, because any comparison would have shamed the hell out of both of them.

[HAB911]

12. My inbox is swamped with 20 to 30 a day

wearing down my delete key

[JI7]

13. I ignore all emails and texts . Even if I want to give I don't give based on those but they seem to

work based on how much certain candidates raised in previous elections.

[DFW]

14. When I am in the States, I am appalled at the spam fundraising letters and calls I get.

If they leave a message, I listen. If it's someone who sounds worthwhile, I'll even call them back, but no message and no name, then no take call. Phone numbers and addresses get passed around, no question.

My US phone is turned off when I'm back in EU-Land.

My mail is JAMMED with money solicitations. I sometimes lose half my weekend going through piles of direct mail solicitations. Some can be sent right to the trash, e.g. religious organizations, Republicans, Senators who urged Al Franken to resign and never apologized publicly, duplicate requests, offers to sell me useless stuff. It's appalling. My wife can't believe it, since this is extremely rare in Germany. One thing I really hate is the amount of "surveys" that aren't interested in the slightest in the information they are "seeking," but rather ask for money under a pretext.

One thing I have found is that if you actually get a call from someone running for the House, if they ask you if there's any issue you are particularly concerned about, unless they are personal acquaintances already, it gets forgotten immediately, whether they get elected or not. In my personal experience, the Senate is a different story, although I only know a few of them, so who knows what the deal is with the rest? It's kind of hectic for them right now, anyway. There are the big bills on the docket before recess, the Manchin-Sinema show, plus campaigning and fund-raising for those up for re-election this November. I'm in Washington now, hope to see a few of them before I move on.