I'm a newbie to the local political scene, so I haven't inherited the scorecard. One thing that disturbed me was the number of anti-Bell mailings I got leading up to the election. The thick, glossy postcards were not in favor of another candidate, they were just anti-Bell. When we got our 7th such postcard, we went downtown and picked up a few Bell signs for the yard!
My question is, how much money was spent on this mailing campaign? Do I have the right to know, or is this proprietary information? And how can I let the committee know that this tactic, in particular, backfired on them? Especially since we got enough campaign signs to share with neighbors who otherwise would not have driven to Bell HQ.
I believe that most of those mailings came from the Ohio Democratic Party. Each election communication has to have a disclaimer on it that says, "paid for by..." with either the chairman or the treasurer's name and address.
Political parties and campaign committees have to provide reports of expenditures at various times during the year.
The Secretary of State website has campaign finance reports on it for the state parties, campaigns and PACs while the local Board of Elections website will have the same reports for local parties and local candidates.
If you saved the mailers you can look up the name on the disclaimer on either of these websites to see how much was spent - and also to contact them about your opinion.
SOS: http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/portal/page?_pageid=34,56478,34_56508&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
Lucas County BOE: http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/index.aspx?nid=81
posted by MaggieThurber on Nov 05, 2009 at 10:25:18 am #