This section is designed to help build your understanding of the nuts and bolts of direct mail fundraising and the critical role it plays in building fundraising infrastructure for conservative candidates and causes. We intend to defend our EFFECTIVE fundraising practices from liberal attacks and the mainstream media. See what direct mail fundraising can mean for you and your cause or campaign. For Conservative Victory!
"There has been a lot of speculation and misinformation surrounding the direct mail fundraising programs of some of our clients. The liberal press and blogs have an agenda. The left knows how effective direct mail can be to a candidate that is not independently wealthy nor has many wealthy friends. The purpose of their smear techniques is not to be the defender of small dollar donors but rather to dissuade conservative candidates with national appeal from using direct mail and thereby removing any chance of competing financially with entrenched incumbents.
On the Republican side, you see something different going on. Almost without exception you can trace these misrepresentations back to the camp of the primary opponent of a Base Connect client. This is what much of the “blogosphere” has become—a place where you can attack your opponent with very little fact, linked to another blog with very little fact. It is a place where facts don't seem to matter and free speech has run amok. To make matters worse, the comments are oftentimes nothing more than hate-filled nonsense from people who know even less about the topic—people who would not say such things in person because common decency would preclude such utterances.
Base Connect is under no delusion that we can reason with many of those who attack our company or our clients. We do believe, however, that there are many who understand that there are always two sides to a story. The American people have shown that they understand that everything is seldom what is seems and that the media, whether television, radio, print, or online, have an agenda, which, with few exceptions, is inimical to them.
In the ensuing weeks Base Connect plans to confront the misinformation with the light of hard facts. To that end we begin with two of the direct mail campaigns that have recently been in the spotlight."
This chart shows the results of the 2008 William Russell for Congress direct mail campaign. Lt Col. William Russell ran in Pennsylvania's 12th district against entrenched Democrat John Murtha (recently deceased). Here, for the first time, we publicly share the exact numbers. The direct mail campaign as a whole raised $3.25 million. As the chart shows, 34% of the gross went to the United States Postal Service. The second largest amount, totaling 26%, went directly to the campaign—a very impressive $841,263. The cost allocations continue down from there. The amount of net is even more remarkable considering that this direct mail program did not start until December of 2007 instead of the typical March or April start time. Would it have been better for the candidate to not utilize these resources?
This chart shows the results of the 2008 Honeycutt for Congress direct mail campaign. Dr. Deborah Honeycutt ran in Georgia's 13th district and would be the first black Republican woman ever elected to Congress. Yet, the press and the blogs have never shared the true fundraising story. It's one for the record books. Here, for the first time, we publicly share the exact numbers. The direct mail campaign as a whole raised $5.13 million—making Dr. Honeycutt the number one fundraising challenger of 2008 (that does not include self-funders). As the chart shows, 33% of the gross went to the United States Postal Service. The second largest amount, totaling 26%, went directly to the campaign—a jaw dropping $1,344,192. The cost allocations continue down from there. Without this direct mail, where would this candidate replace this $1,344,192?
Political Action Committees (PACs)
Today I’d like to continue the nuts and bolts discussion about direct mail, with a focus on political action committees (PACs). The first PAC to be featured is another Base Connect client, Black Republican PAC, which since it’s founding in late 2007 has been a target of the Left in a smear campaign because of reasons that are two fold.
So first, before discussing the mechanics of direct mail for a PAC, I should note that the Left has historically reserved especially poisonous words – actually real distain for black Republicans, and I think that plays a large part in why Black Republican PAC is being targeted. From attacks on Clarence Thomas to Condoleeza Rice to Michael Steele -- when the topic of black Republicans comes up -- the Left drops its mask. All of a sudden tolerance and diversity mean naught. All black Americans are expected to toe the liberal line and be thankful to their liberal “masters.” Black Americans who don’t follow in lock step with the Democratic Party in general and who engage in critical thinking, are derided by the Left as “Uncle Toms” and sell outs.
The Left has a very specific agenda when it comes to black America. They hate the very idea of a Black Republican. So, Black Republicans have been shouted down -- harassed and have even had Oreo cookies thrown at them!
We are proud to say Black Republican PAC is the sort of group that was a perfect fit for Base Connect because they are not afraid of the Left’s sticks and stones. BRPAC’s primary mission is to shatter the liberal stranglehold on black America’s vote by both supporting promising black Republican candidates and educating the black community about the superiority of Republican principles and ideas. And they knew going in, they were going to catch flak for goring the Left’s sacred cows.
Now, you may have noticed that there are not a lot of black Republicans in Congress. In fact, right now there are none. The last one, Congressman J.C. Watts who retired in 2003, was not allowed into the Black Congressional Caucus because he was a Republican. So much for the Democrat tolerance and diversity!
There were only a small handful of black Republican candidates running for Congress in 2008 -- though 2010 is a much better year and that’s exciting! It’s going to take time, more than one or two election cycles, to develop our black Republican all-star team -- and it will take forever if we don’t start investing the time and money today. That’s why Black Republican PAC is dedicated to not only helping those running for federal offices but also to state and local office. Their philosophy is that Black Republicanism must be built from the ground up.
To that end, that’s why Black Republican PAC contracted with Base Connect to build a nationwide donor base of all types of Americans who share their philosophy.
The chart below shows the results of Black Republican PACs direct mail fundraising program.
This pie charts shows the results of Black Republican PAC in the 2008 election cycle. The chart shows a direct mail net of $189,614. This amount is all the more amazing when it is taken into consideration that this organization did not exist until just over a year before the 2008 election. You should also notice that the largest expenditure was to the United States Postal Service.
Black Republican PAC took the money they netted from their direct mail campaign along with money they raised through other sources and used it to make direct contributions to candidates, to produce and air a television ad (which was shown on FOX News and which liberal commentator Juan Williams said was, “pretty effective”) , to produce and air two radio ads, and finally to produce and mail targeted voter mail to black Americans across the country.
The Left will say that it cost too much to raise this money. They have the luxury of having donors like George Soros – just about all Hollywood and other limousine liberals who have dedicated their lives and fortunes to seeing America weakened and who write big checks to that end. Black Republican PAC has to work hard to garner the support of thousands of supporters (and yes it has thousands of supporters).
I have two further comments about the Left’s attack on Black Republican PAC.
First, where would a brand-new new organization like Black Republican PAC -- barely a year old on Election Day 2008 -- go to replace the $189,614 it netted from direct mail if that money had not been available to it?
Second, in its first year, Black Republican PAC netted 15% off its program and used that money to do radio and TV ads, mail pieces, and make direct contributions to candidates. For a PAC just out of the womb, that’s one heck of a way to make an entrance!
The real test of organizations like Black Republican PAC is whether or not they become more and more effective and relevant through the cycles while growing their base of donors while not falling into the trap of having bigger and bigger overhead.
My next post will look at a PAC that has a few more cycles under its belt. Please stay tuned and I welcome your comments!
National Fundraising
by Les Phillip, Congressional candidate Alabama 5th District
Often in politics, when a candidate doesn't have any big skeletons in their closet, opponents will attempt to create skeletons through the rumor-mill. Recently, a couple local media and blog sources have written about our use of a national fund-raising firm called Base-Connect. To dispel any rumors and misinformation, here is a simple explanation of who Base-Connect is, how they raise funds, and how they influence elections.
Base-Connect is a fund-raising organization that works primarily with grassroots candidates, especially veteran candidates like myself, who don't have years of political networking to provide a pool of PAC organizations and political string-pullers that write large checks. They use a mail campaign to appeal to consistently conservative individual donors throughout the country. This allows people who are not career politicians or self-funding millionaires to raise the funds necessary to compete in the unreasonably expensive campaign environment of a congressional race. It allows people who live in districts where the seat is safely held by one party to participate in the conservative cause in another district. It also allows a candidate the ability to fund a campaign without being betrothed to special interests or a few members of the local political class. They don't interfere with or take commissions from any donation given directly to the campaign, they simply allow a non-political candidate to get their message out more effectively in their district.
Criticism of this fund-raising system centers around the percentage of the funds that are spent on the fund-raising. Because of the national scope of their mail-campaign, the return ratio is limited, and the donations are typically large quantities of small contributions. This results in a net gain of approximately 26%, which is a significant boost in resources without any out-of-pocket expenditure from the campaign. In the process, a national awareness of the candidate is created.
Our campaign has received well over 400 donations from local, individual donors, and we had the most local donors as of 4th quarter filing. We have also had contributions from all 50 states. Our donors are a cross-section of America, and of the 5th district here in Alabama. I am proud to have a campaign funded by "We the People."