What Was the Ted Cruz Campaign Thinking?

What Was the Ted Cruz Campaign Thinking?

Ted Cruz’s campaign sent out mailers to some Iowa voters on Friday which have left many infuriated.

It was a large card printed with the words “ELECTION ALERT” “VOTER VIOLATION” “PUBLIC RECORD” “FURTHER ACTION NEEDED.” On the reverse was printed “VOTING VIOLATION” and this text that followed:

You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record. Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday’s caucuses.

It looked like this:

cruz_Mailer
Click to enlarge.

One man who was livid when his wife received this — and who then said this was enough to push him to caucus for Marco Rubio — tweeted this:

While the names printed on the card were already on the public record, Iowa voters were stunned that the above-board Cruz campaign would use such sketchy tactics to entice caucus-goers. Even the blog Red State, which has been very supportive of Ted Cruz, wrote “this is not how you go about convincing people and persuading them. This is a Donald Trump tactic and Cruz’s team should know better.” And Powerline took the campaign to task as well, using a football metaphor: “The mailing plays straight into the hands of Trump, who says that Cruz is a nasty guy (he has never struck me as nasty), and of Rubio, who comes across in public as less abrasive. If this is Cruz’s vaunted ground game in action, it should be penalized 15 yards.”

Despite the fact that many Cruz supporters took to social media to declare the cards a hoax, or Photoshopped, the campaign did confirm that yes, the cards were theirs, and they did send them out. Good on them for that — at least they didn’t further spin the Photoshop conspiracy, or rely on the old worn out lie “we were hacked!”

Conservative blogger D. Hawkins pointed out that this was not the first time this kind of shenanigan has been pulled. MoveOn.org also performed the same stunt in its mailers promoting Obama in 2012.

Should Cruz’s campaign come to a screeching halt due to one over-the-top mailer? No, those whose main concern is getting a Constitutional conservative in the White House should not scratch Cruz’s name from their dance card. And certainly this pales in comparison with the childish tantrums and ad hominem attacks from the Trump camp. But the Cruz campaign needs to scramble to set things aright with the voters of Iowa.

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