Direct Campaign Mail

Going Postal: After Dispute, Political Mailings to Continue at Standard Rate

Ari Pinkus, May 20, 2005

Political candidates will not have to pay a premium to send out their mailers targeting specific voters, thanks to lobbying by the American Association of Political Consultants. 

The AAPC reached an agreement with the United States Postal Service this week that keeps the candidates’ postage rates at the standard rate of about 19 cents per piece, rather than raising it to the first class rate of 37 cents. The new rate was slated to take effect June 1. 

“It would have been the single greatest spike in campaign spending,” AAPC president Wayne Johnson said.

Local candidates would feel the increase the most.

With postage a significant part of a campaign budget, it would make it difficult for candidates to communicate with voters particularly those who cannot afford to run ads on television, he said.

Since local elections take place year-round, it was “very important to remove the disparity between political speech and other forms of speech,” he said. 

The new USPS Customer Support Ruling states that personal information in political and advocacy mailings will continue to be eligible at the standard rate. Among the characteristics, which the USPS defines as personal information, are: age, ethnicity, gender and other demographic characteristics. Personal information also includes addressee’s polling place, precinct, electoral district, or elected political representatives, ballot propositions or initiatives recommended by the sender.

The AAPC, which consists of about 1,000 bipartisan members, does not normally get involved in advocacy, said Johnson, president of the Republican consulting firm JohnsonClark, in Sacramento, Calif.

But political mailing was going to be charged more than non-political nonprofits and commercial mailings, which were not subject to the new first class rate. 

“We don’t care what the postage rate is so long as it’s fair. When it was going to be at a higher rate, so it becomes a penalty on political speech, we stepped in,” Johnson said.  
 
Jim Lacy, a postal attorney, represented many of the AAPC members in the case, and helped draft the rules that would be mutually acceptable, AAPC officials said. The organization also had the support of the Democratic National Committee, Republican National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and National Republican Campaign Committee.

“They were great to work with, and it seems they did not consider the ramifications when they left political speech isolated at a higher rate,” Johnson said. 

The ruling does not lower the rate 11 cents which non-political nonprofits like charities and hospitals pay for postage.
 

Using direct mail to target your audience takes some planning. You can use Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 to help you organize this process by creating a direct mail marketing plan and tracking details, tasks, and milestones. See how to build your mailing list in Microsoft Office Access 2003 and how to use mail merge in Microsoft Office Word 2003 to personalize and produce your publications.