I was just on NPR, talking about taxpayer funded political mailings.
Interesting show regarding "frank mail." That is the mail you receive from your Congressman in which they get to use taxpayer money to send out glossy brochures describing all the good things they've done for their constituents. Initially, there was a lot of ambiguity in the conversation, with the guests saying that frank mail is no different than direct mail (campaign or PAC funded). I was on to discuss the difference between frank mail and direct mail. And there is a BIG difference.
Frank mail has many restrictions, from the size of the actual mailing to the size of the Congressman's headshot (only one smail, business-card sized headshot is allowed), to the size of the type we can use. They all must feature a formal headline stating that the mailing is "From the office of Congressman _______." No copywriter headlines like "Joe Schmoe is Working For You!"
All of the photos must all be real, no stock (except for background imagery or photographic illustrations of a subject, such as a picture of medical equipment if the subject is Medicare). Also, in frank mail a page can only show two photos featuring the candidate, and they must be small -- like business-card size -- and they must be of REAL events, not staged. They must feature captions fully describing the event, location and the date, and even the full names of recognizable people in the photo.
Finally, all frank mail must feature a clear disclaimer, not hidden in tiny 6-point type, stating that the piece is funded by you, the taxpayer. Then it must all must be submitted to a Congressional franking committee who actually measures the pictures and type, and will not approve it for mailing if you break any of the rules.
This is a HUGE difference between taxpayer funded frank mail and campaign "direct mail." With direct mail, the only real limits apply to campaign finance law and USPS size regulations. Otherwise, no holds barred. We can do negative, nasty-looking doctored photos of opponents (you cannot mention any opponents or upcoming elections in frank mail). We can mock people and use imagery to paint them in a negative light. Or, on positive pieces, we can make the candidate look like a god, with wonderful family photos with the pet golden retriever running on the beach, to shots of the children or the candidate pretending to be helping an old lady cross the street. Anything goes. Those are the postcards you get in the mail.
If you can't tell the difference between taxpayer funded frank mail and campaign funded direct mail, you're probably pretty dense in the first place. Now, whether taxpayers should be funding this at all is another debate. I was just on air to help clarify some of misconceptions about what actually constitutes a "political mailing."
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