Thursday, January 25, 2007

43rd Ward Aldermanic Campaign Contact Round-up

It's local political junk mail time again my friends!

And -- drum roll please -- here is the Tally of Contact my home has received from the campaigns via regular mail and phone calls.

(I'm not including e-mails because I don't think we want our candidates contacting us this way less we all get death-by-spam from every government official in the state. But, if I were a candidate, I'd sure as heck be trying to e-mail you guys.)

43rd Ward Aldermanic (Drumrolland big echoey voice again, please) TALLY OF CONTACT

Vi Daley:
3 Mailings

Notes: These feature her "Vi" logo and revolve around themes of commitment to the ward, holding the line on property taxes, and protecting seniors and retirees.

[Has anyone else noticed that our aldermen are getting logos? I think Walter Burnett has one, too. In Vi's, the left side of the V sweeps around her name kind of like an @ sign. Maybe I should do that with my name. . . ]

Tim Egan: 1 Brochure Delivered to my Front Door

Notes: "Vote Tim In" is the slogan, and yours truly was gratified to see a photo of Tim helping out at the North Avenue Beach Clean-up earlier this summer. (See post here.) [For the record, Vi Daley and her staff attended that day, too. So, bonus points all around for those of you keeping score at home.] Tim also emphasized that he'll take "positive actions" and create a "rational commonground."

Michele Smith: 1 Phone Call and 1 Mailing

Well, unfortunately, when the phone rang I was in the middle of dinner with one screaming toddler refusing her soup, a six-year-old asking for a cup of juice, and a dog whining at the back door.

Why I answered in the midst of all that, I'll never know. It was a very sincere young woman calling named Melissa, and she asked if she could tell me why she had volunteered for Michele Smith.

Now, of course, I'm the type who actually did want to talk with Melissa. But I had two choices: avoid Melissa or have a Mommy meltdown. You know which one I chose, but I'm sorry I didn't talk with her that night.

A couple of days later, she sent me a campaign flyer with a hand-written note that included, "We in the 43rd ward deserve an alderman that listens to her constituents and will let their voices be heard in City Hall." She also invited me to Smith's website.

I have not received anything yet from Zelchenko or Goodstein. Although, Zelchenko does have a PDF of his flyer on his website, but you have to be a highly motivated voter to track it down. I'm pretty motivated, so I hope to get to it soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also received those Vi Daley mailings. All but the first stated that her campaign paid for it, but the first was an 8 page newspaper that was nothing but campaign propoganda, and it appears the taxpayers were stuck paying for it. Thanks Vi. See ya.

Anonymous said...

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for the nice comment about Melissa. Melissa is working hard, along with many others, to get the word out about my campaign. I'm proud that Melissa made a good impression - one of the reasons I'm running is because I believe that representatives of the alderman's office should be helpful and welcoming to constituents. I also agree with your post concerning the lack of transparency of the alderman's activities.

I hope you find that my website, www.michelesmith.org, tells you where I stand on the issues facing our ward - and I'm committed to having a customer-focused, open aldermanic office.

I think the best way to decide how to vote is to compare the candidates by attending one of our upcoming candidate forums -

Feb. 8 - Peggy Notebart Museum
Feb. 12 - LIVE Radio Broadcast, Chicago History Museum (I believe you need to show up at 8 am or 8:30 am)
Feb. 15 - Church of Our Savior
Feb. 22 - Chicago Tonight, WTTW

Details are on my website.

Feel free to call my office at 312-643-1511 anytime.

Michele Smith
www.michelesmith.org
312-643-1511

Craig Gernhardt said...

I'm enjoying watching my mailbox to see who's sending what.

Alderman Moore sent out this ward style - politcal newsletter (first ever) a month ago. Natarus had one too.

Sneeky propaganda that neighbors are seeing right through.