A verbatim press release: "Code Red: NRCC Launches Targeted Calls Against Tim Walz Alerting Minnesota Families to the Democrats’ Dangerous Healthcare Takeover - And How to Stop It"
Assuming that most MinnPost readers don't see as many political press releases as I do, I hoped some of you might find it interesting to read, verbatim, this one, from today, bearing the headline that is on this post.
"For Immediate Release: March 4, 2010
Washington- The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has launched targeted phone calls today alerting Minnesota voters and taxpayers to the seriousness of the Democrats’ job-killing government takeover of healthcare while sending a loud and clear signal to Democrat Tim Walz that his support for the Obama-Pelosi healthcare agenda is politically toxic. The majority of American voters want the Democrats to scrap their partisan healthcare bill and start over with reforms that will lower costs, but Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are counting on Walz's vote to ram their reckless healthcare agenda through Congress. These targeted calls are the first paid media for the NRCC’s “Project Code Red,” an aggressive multi-front communications effort to force vulnerable Democrats to go on the record on whether they stand with American voters or Washington party bosses when it comes to the Democrat healthcare agenda.
“Democrat Walz's continued support for his party’s wildly unpopular agenda has put him squarely at odds with Minnesota families,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “As unemployment statewide is stagnant, struggling Minnesota taxpayers cannot afford a big-government healthcare agenda that will kill jobs, hike taxes, and raise prices. These targeted phone calls will alert Minnesota families that Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are gunning for Walz's vote on their partisan healthcare push even though it will stand in the way of economic recovery and has already been rejected by the majority of the American public. While Democrat party bosses are eager to continue to ram their reckless healthcare bill through Congress at any cost, it appears that Tim Walz needs a wake-up call from the folks he is supposed to represent.”
Tim Walz has a risky decision to make: He can stand up for struggling Minnesota families who have already rejected this radical, partisan healthcare legislation or he can stand with the Democrat party’s brazen disregard for the will of the American people and pay a price in November.
Targeted phone call script below:
“Hello I’m calling from the NRCC with a code red alert about an impending healthcare vote in Congress. Even though a majority of Minnesota voters want them to scrap it, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are planning to ram their dangerous, out-of-control healthcare spending bill through Congress anyway. What’s worse, Congressman Tim Walz voted for this bill the last time it was up and might vote for it AGAIN. Walz already voted for a bill that will kill jobs, raise the costs of healthcare, and increase taxes. Tim Walz should be focusing on creating jobs, yet he might be the deciding vote that causes this massive new spending bill to pass. Please call Tim Walz now at 202-225-2472 before it is too late and tell him to vote no on Nancy Pelosi's dangerous healthcare scheme.
Visit www.nrcc.org/codered to learn more. This call was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
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Comments (10)
Interesting. I have two thoughts. 1) Where do farmers get their healthcare? Possible options seem to be a) go without, b) private marketplace or c) through an employed spouse. Does anyone have data on such? 2) Mayo, organizationally, seems to be pro-reform, if not necessarily fully behind the senate bill. Is that likely to hold true for Rochester voters as a whole?
Thanks Mr. Black, how can an organization be so sanguine about things as they are and/or paint a picture of a falling sky? I do not know as I personally know of one young family who lost a Dad to untreated heart disease (he ignored symptoms as he had no insurance) and I myself have been on 3 different pans in as many years. Somebody let me know.
As Eric just pointed out, Tim Walz is in fact one of the more conservative Democrats in Congress. His biggest issues have been agriculture and veterans affairs, which go over well down here.
And he's a good politician with a good organization -- he appears on local TV news regularly in segments highlighting things he's done for the district. And he's well funded.
I'll predict that once they're done whistling, the GOPers won't waste much of their money here. Hard core Republicans will buy their arguments and vote against Tim (so far there are no opposing candidates worth voting FOR), but that's not nearly enough to win an election.
Prediction -- another easy win for Tim.
@Brian--
I'm not sure where non-corporate farmers get their health care (co-ops may have some sort of group policies), but family farmers are a very small proportion of the population. These days, many farm families have a least one member with an outside job; another possible source of coverage.
Many more people around here are in some sort of agribusiness, and get their coverage (for better or worse) the same way that the rest of us do.
//I like that the strategy has a framework. Frameworks bring clarity to the fund-raising process, and the plan has a simple, clear message: We have fun peddling fear to Luddites.//
Funny op-ed in today's WaPo:
"Tweaking the RNC's fund-raising strategy"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/04/AR201003...
I couldn't help but notice that the Rebs. don't even mention a candidate or ideas of their own. They're not saying "Vote for us because we have all these ideas we want to use to improve your lives." or "Vote for us because OUR health care reform will be better for you than the one the Dems are trying to pass."
They're only following the playbook revealed in the recent Reb. powerpoint presentation:
They're only saying, "Be AFRAID! Be VERY AFRAID!"
and trying to make Walz feel afraid of voting for health care reform.
Of course there are those in the district who will agree with what they hear in those calls, but the people of that region of the state also tend to be quite independent minded. The political middle-of-the-roaders and independents in that area will not appreciate getting calls that, rather than seeking to discover what they think, are attempting to TELL them what to think and tell them HOW to think.
Yes it is always easy to appeal to fear (what a dichotomy). The Republicans with all their money also have "intellectual heavyweights" like Jon Voight, Chuck Norris, Steve Baldwin and the mailman from Cheers to carry their message over the airaves as if Fox wasn't enuf. Well at least they are creating a new cottage industry for washed up actors.
//So, to summarize: If you tweak the Luddite part of your strategic framework, then you could reconsider the fear. And if you go beyond fear, you could propose some policies. And if you pushed some interesting policies, you could maybe reach more people.//
Ho Hum. More of the same old same old from the political parties.
I get this stuff all the time from both sides. "Be afraid" is one common element. "Send us money" is the other.
Check out Republican Frank Luntz's "Language of Health Care" memo, in which he gave Republicans "words that work" to use in fighting health care reform (death panels, government takeover, bureaucrats between you and your doctor, socialized medicine, et cetera).
We'll soon be hearing more from Luntz's new list of words for fighting financial services reform, among them: lobbyist loopholes, bloated bureaucracy, fine print, another Washington agency, hardworking taxpayers, special interests, unlimited regulatory powers, and another government bailout (listed by Lou Dubose, editor, in The Washington Spectator of March 1).
Says Dubose, "Luntz's work is formulaic. He uses polling to measure public opinion. Then he identifies inflammatory language that can turn public anger into a campaign."
The writer of the Walz phone calls is no doubt a great Luntz admirer.
Apparently as reported on NPR today the repubs are pulling back a bit on their language. But then to listen to Romney in front of the press club he appeared affable but constantly stressed the need for a more muscular foreign policy. I imagine our lords at the Pentagon are salivating for the red meat Romney will toss them.