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Bruce Desmond mails a fake jury summons to voters

by: Ron Newman

Sun Sep 17, 2006 at 20:52:17 PM EDT


(Gotta say, this strikes me as kinda sleazy. - promoted by David)

A friend of mine in Arlington received a piece of mail yesterday with this text on the outside:

IMPORTANT JURY DUTY INFORMATION
JURY DUTY: Your Civic Obligation

When I opened it up, it turned out to be a campaign leaflet for Bruce Desmond for Middlesex County Clerk of Courts.

Until today, I was undecided about this race.  Now I know that I cannot support Bruce Desmond.  A candidate willing to mail out fake jury summons is not someone whom I can trust running an important part of our court system.

I've scanned in the mailing, which you can see for yourself after the jump:
Ron Newman :: Bruce Desmond mails a fake jury summons to voters

The outside of the mailing:


The inside:
Tags: , , , (All Tags)
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Bruce Desmond mails a fake jury summons to voters | 26 comments
Verify? (0.00 / 0)
Someone needs to call Desmond's campaign office and verify whether this came from them.  We have had incidents in the past few years of campaign material purporting to come from one group or campaign, actually coming from another.  And I remember how the night before the New Hampshire primary in 2004, lots of people got 2am or 3am robocalls with a recorded message urging them to vote for Howard Dean, which made them very upset at Dean... those calls did not come from us!
PRETTY tough to hide having used a mailhouse? (0.00 / 0)
That is looking at the Bulk Mail stamp. Of course, if it was a drop made to look like a mail piece, then there's the issue of  using the postal mailbox, which is a no-no. 

Was this a drop or actually mailed?

If it had gone out with a first class stamp, or as a drop, then you might have "plausible deniability."

Imagination is more important than knowledge... Albert Einstein

[ Parent ]
mailed (0.00 / 0)
My friend received it in the mail.  She lives in a condo building where nobody but the USPS letter carrier can put anything into a mailbox.

Several other people on the Arlington List have reported that they received the same mailing.  None of them were happy about it.

[ Parent ]
Postal, not Field (0.00 / 0)
It would be pretty hard for a Clerk of Courts candidate to get together a large enough field organization to do a lit drop for all of Middlesex County or even part of it.  He'd have to do it by mail.  I doubt if many people are out hitting the pavement for this race other than the candidates and their immediate families and closest friends.  Michael Sullivan's professional lit piece arrived at my house last week. It was friendly, made him seem like a smart and nice guy.  Bruce Desmond's is one to make you scared or angry. When people go to the polls except in Somerville and Cambridge where the candidates are from, most people will probably vote for whichever candidate's name they like best or leave it blank.  "Michael that's a nice name" or "Bruce that's a nice name".
[ Parent ]
seems to be authentic (6.00 / 1)
I didn't call Bruce Desmond, but I did just call Boyds Direct, the mailing house whose name is printed on the postal permit.  Their number is 781.503.0812.  They confirmed that they had mailed this on Bruce Desmond's behalf.
[ Parent ]
Yes, Desmond really sent it (0.00 / 0)
From an article on the Cambridge Chronicle's website:

Desmond uses ‘jury duty’ to summons votes
By David L. Harris/ Somerville Journal
Monday, September 18, 2006 - Updated: 02:35 PM EST

If you’ve gotten a jury summons over the last few days, you might be surprised to know that it could be fake.

  Alderman-at-Large Bruce Desmond, who’s running for clerk of courts, said his campaign sent out the ads with what looks like a jury summons on one side and Desmond’s headshot on the other. The cards were sent to an unknown number of county residents one day before the primary.

  A spokeswoman for opponent Michael Sullivan’s campaign said the notices were “misleading and deceptive.”

  “The faux jury duty notice was misleading and deceptive to the public,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Dever. “His intention was fast and lose in regards to the state seal. Michael received numerous calls and e-mails from people expressing their disdain.”

  “We didn’t do anything illegal,” noted Desmond. “We didn’t use any state seals. The outside, we tried to make it look like a jury duty card.”

  Desmond said the reason his campaign decided to send out the cards was because “this time of the year before the election, there’s just a ton of political mail.

  “I don’t think there was anything distasteful or disgraceful about it,” he said. “It was relevant because it’s the clerk of courts position.”
 

[ Parent ]
Brilliant...... (0.00 / 0)
That is briliant!!!!!!!!!!

I have a feeling that I know the genius behind that peice as well.... Utilizes the tear off - tell Bruce what you think gig....people love it by why use it so late in the campaign!!1

No control of Bulk Mail (0.00 / 0)
When you send something bulk mail, it can be deilvered in 3 days or 30 days. The campaign likley had nothing to do with its vbeing delivered this late.
[ Parent ]
Not true (0.00 / 0)
Political mail is treated as first class mail during a certain time frame prior to election day, so long as it is tagged as such. (I don't remember what the actual time frame is.)
[ Parent ]
"Standard Mail" == Third Class == Bulk Mail (0.00 / 0)
The permit says "Pre STD." which is short for "Standard Mail".  That is the postal service's official name for what used to be called "Bulk Mail" or "Third-Class Mail".

The postal service also offers "Presorted First-Class Mail", but that costs a lot more.

By the way, Boyds Direct also sent out Sullivan's mailings.

[ Parent ]
Quite the mailing (6.00 / 1)
All the effectiveness of Al From, with the morals of Karl Rove.  Delicious.

~~~~
Believe it or not, I have even more to say...
Good post but (5.00 / 1)
I think we should outlaw all 'I was undecided in race X until yesterday morning when...'
"Fix the jury system" (0.00 / 0)
Does anyone else think that is his a hilarious choice of words?

A blogger no more.
Heh (0.00 / 0)
Good point!
[ Parent ]
Good Idea (0.00 / 0)
I think it is great that in a race that is not getting enough attention a candidate sent out a piece of mail that people will actually read instead of throwing it in recycling bin. I got it, and thought it was a great way to get peoples attention. It’s not like they sent a fake notice that told people to go to the court on a certain day and then when they got there Bruce Desmond was there to pitch his candidacy. 

Also has anyone checked on Ron’s friend in Arlington to see if he has recovered from opening the extra piece of mail?

James

An even better idea (0.00 / 0)
It’s not like they sent a fake notice that told people to go to the court on a certain day and then when they got there Bruce Desmond was there to pitch his candidacy.
That would be hilarious!

Here's another idea for Bruce:
Mail people absentee ballots with his name already marked and declare that by dropping them off at their local elections office they'll automatically be entered into some sort of drawing for a new car.

It's not like you'd be PROMISING them a new car. 

[ Parent ]
The problem with dishonest mailings (5.50 / 2)
is that they make it increasingly difficult to send out an honest mailing.  You probably know, like me, that any piece of mail that says "open immediately" or "do not discard" can and should go straight into the recycling (depending on whether your community needs you to remove the window envelopes).  There should be a way to privilege mail so that you can tell it's worthy of attention.  The legitimate jury mail does this, and for a candidate to try to piggyback on the reputation of legitimate jury mail to get their stuff opened is in fact very sleazy.  If this is the respect that the guy has for the procedures of the court system, I wouldn't want him running part of my courts.
[ Parent ]
Not a hanging offense (5.00 / 1)
I got one of these--coincidentally, I'd just completed two weeks of jury duty, and I thought, Oh, what now?

It's pretty dumb and shows how the hothouse environment of a campaign can divorce what I assume are smart people from the reality of asking for votes. I could say the same thing about Gabrieli's robocalls, which have a lot of people ticked off.

From inside the hothouse these must seem like pretty clever ideas. Easy to forget that courting voters is alot different than talking to supporters.

Well, maybe not so easy, in fact kind of stupid, and for that reason deserving of BMG scorn. But spare me the moral outrage--nobody, on reading Desmond's jury mailer, is going to think it a summons for jury duty or really anything other than what it is.

The thing that really raised my eybrows, though, is the statement that something is wrong with or unfair about the jury system. What, exactly? (I happen to think that juries are pretty important.) Or is this just hothouse hyperbole?

Yeah, I wondered about that too (0.00 / 0)
The mailing is remarkably devoid of content once you get past the deceptive envelope.  I don't think "everyone knows" the court system is "broken and needs to be fixed."  In fact, my naive impression is that the court system works reasonably well.  If a candidate wants to tell me otherwise, he needs to give me specifics, which he hasn't done.
[ Parent ]
Actually (0.00 / 0)
Both candidates have talked at length about what is right and what is wrong abotu our system. It appears that on customer service (ie helping those coming into the system, making sure they have the info they need etc) is really broken, as is the scheduling of cases and whatnot. The same report that talks about that also says though that the courts "come to the right decision" when they finally get around to making one, ie their verdicts generally seem correct (I guess as measured in regards to number of successful appeals?), and that's something that needs to be kept even while tinkering with the other aspects that are more broken.

If that gives you some idea.

Left in Lowell: cuz why read the Lowell Sun if you don't have to? ;)

[ Parent ]
a real jury summons mailing looks like this (0.00 / 0)
In case anyone's curious what a real Massachusetts jury summons envelope looks like, I found one here (by searching Google for "Jury Duty Your Civic Obligation"):

State Seal/County Seal (0.00 / 0)
Can anyone tell me the legal use of a State or County seal? I know you aren't supposed to use public property for political events - can you reporduce the official seal for a political campaign mailing?

For the record Sullivan has receieved the support of all four Central Labor Councils covering Middlesex County and the Mass AFL-CIO approved a mailing to all registered union families in Middlesex County on behalf of Sullivan. Desmond's own union endorsed against him.

Desmond is a hack looking for a higher paying job that he can "no show" until he retires - if county dog catcher was open he'd be running for that.

Not the state seal (0.00 / 0)
The symbol on Desmond's mailing looks a lot like the coat of arms on the state seal, but it's not. This is the state seal:


[ Parent ]
not what election should be about (0.00 / 0)
  I think its sad that the Sullivan campaign has gone to this level of attacking people online....state your case fine, say you don't like the mailing fine, but just to attack people and make false accusations, this is not what elections should be about......
Sullivan campaign? (0.00 / 0)
I have absolutely nothing to do with the Sullivan campaign (or anyone else's primary campaign, other than Deval Patrick's).
[ Parent ]
Watch out (0.00 / 0)
for lolorb!
[ Parent ]
Bruce Desmond mails a fake jury summons to voters | 26 comments



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