Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Direct-Mail Deviltry I must object strongly to the article by Christopher M. Byron ("Direct-Mail Deviltry," TAS, November 1994). The article unfairly attacks conservative...
...Your admiring readers, among whom I count myself, deserve a "Current Wisdom" that hits the correct target...
...The author didn't once ask the members of these organizations what they believe...
...I deeply resent the article's portrayal of the more than 400,000 seniors represented by United Seniors Association (USA, Inc...
...It's true that at the time of the mailing the bill called for five years in jail and that was later reduced to two years...
...Although some marketing companies may have a "joint ownership" in an organization's membership list and thus earn revenue from rental of the list, this is not the case with ACHCR...
...Box 549, Arlington, Virginia 22216-0549 L 950.1 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 75) rity men moved through the crowd, politely opening home movie cameras to expose the film, nobody protested...
...They're thedriving force behind the conservative cause...
...As his letter states, in return for acting as the coalition's direct mail agency, SW&A was compensated with just more than $500,000 in 1993...
...I was never called, much less interviewed...
...I would not allow anything else...
...Lacey P. Wallace Shreveport, Louisiana For the Love of Mary We are big fans of Mary Matalin, and after your review in the December 1994 issue by John Podhoretz, we have decided to not renew our subscription...
...Nary a week goes by that I do not receive at least 10-15 requests to support this candidate, or that cause, or the latest issue...
...Then again, maybe my brain needs to be scrubbed a little harder...
...As to Mr...
...I've known Steve Winchell for more than ten years...
...Your article will help me direct more of it to file nineteen...
...seniors who are too often used as pawns in the game of public policy, and who are now presumed to have "nothing more to do with their lives than watch TV and wait for the mail...
...Winchell than Mr...
...Your readers deserve to know the most important reason why the article's credibility is in question...
...The article serves only to offend those older Americans who raise their voices in support of the free market, less government, low taxes, and traditional values...
...v. Hillary Rodham Clinton, et al...
...The American Spectator February 1995 79...
...Keep up this type of objective reporting to ensure that the conservative cause avoids prostituting itself...
...Do the members care what the vendors were paid...
...What especially disturbed me in this article were the costs associated with fundraising itself...
...Alexander and another partner in the firm objected to Mr...
...I wonder how many of Mr...
...Your article also doesn't state that most of these direct mail entrepreneurs would prefer mailing for political organizations that were not governed by the restrictions that a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) put on an organization...
...It seems to me any and all information and comments given to the author by Mr...
...Our lobbyists David Keene, Beau Boulter, and Mike Korbey have met with over 100 members of Congress to discuss these issues as well as the impact a Clinton-style, government-run health care system would have had on senior Americans...
...My pay is the knowledge that I have contributed in some way to the preservation of freedom...
...For balance I think that you need to show that these abuses are not restricted to the "Right...
...595--3 inch (maximum 3...
...One more small point: I have heard Gerry Adams speak and his accent is pure Ulster, not Liverpool or Dublin...
...Folks rise to the bait," he says...
...Other restrictions may apply...
...I donate my talents and time to ACHCR because this is a cause I believe in...
...Under the guise of some sort of "exposé" of conservative mailing practices, I believe the article is nothing more than a vehicle through which an ex-employee carried out a personal vendetta...
...It would seem these folks want to give to North...
...Consider the letters by and in behalf of Mr...
...it's my choice...
...Address: City: State: Zip: Date of change: CLASSIFIED ORDER FORM Rates: $4.50 per word (10 word minimum) [+$15 extra per ad for TAS blindbox number if desired.], classified display ads: 1 column wide (2-1/4") by length desired to purchase: $225-1 inch...
...Janet Watt Boldt Wayne, Michigan The Lost Arcadia December's Continuing Crisis incorrectly identified Myra Obasi's home as Arcadia, California...
...I am proud to say that task has been accomplished...
...he had no spinal injury) and (2) that the public did not know he was crippled by polio...
...City: State: Zip: Phone: Send ad copy with payment and this form to: The American Spectator Classified Department P.O...
...Yes, I'm a donor, despite my insider's knowledge of direct mail...
...And yes, Mr...
...Rosanne Klass New York, New York Ms...
...When I say this outside my house, they tell me I lose credibility by using the word "Communist...
...While I was aware that many fundraising activities do nothing but to feed the business of fundraising itself, I was not aware that political fundraising (especially conservative ones) had a comparatively poor record rivaling some of the worst of fundraising operations...
...This fact should have been known by the author and disclosed to the reader before quoting him, if at all...
...We rely on direct mail to alert our members to town meetings or chapter events in their area...
...But none of this was done out of the goodness of his heart, or even his political beliefs alone...
...TAS Address Changes Made Easy...
...In fact, her work is indeed pioneering, and Ms...
...Direct mail works...
...I give to organizations because I like to show my support for causes I believe in...
...Viguerie...
...His integrity is above reproach...
...But the fact is our agency billed 6 percent of that figure—for creating, managing, and producing a total of almost 20 million letters...
...I don't know where this story started, but it involves two misstatements: (1) that Roosevelt was a paraplegic (he was not...
...Why the innuendo...
...Rather, he says, his partnership interest in SW&A was bought out by Mr...
...Morris, Illinois 61054 (Please attach address label here...
...It is doubly sad, then, to see the rigorous and illuminating work of the distinguished psychologist, Professor Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago, ridiculed by The American Spectator not for its actual substance, but for the tendentious use made of it by Ms...
...He cites Jesse Helms's fundraisers for possible IRS violations, then segues, in the same paragraph, into the news that the National Republican Congressional Committee dropped its relationship with (continued on page 12) 10 The American Spectator February 1995 Stephen Winchell this year...
...We answer only to the 400,000 concerned, conservative senior Americans who love America and want to keep her strong...
...Shame on you...
...That's all there is to it...
...And I bet if you asked the members, they would probably say it was worth a $10 contribution...
...1. Please write your new address in the space provided...
...And we rely on direct mail to generate revenue for projects like USA, Inc...
...When a local charity (Christmas in April) decided to go national, Steve personally lent his money to get it started...
...or the latest-2 pennies included to give you the fundraiser's "two cents" worth...
...You only talk about what the direct marketers were paid...
...Brenda Stanway Mililani, Hawaii The Real Rosalynn Carter On reading David Brock's excellent "Jimmy Carter's Return" (TAS, December 1994), I was reminded of a televised interview with the Carters I once saw...
...magazine...
...But politics aside, I must protest the representing of the Ulster word "crack" as a Gaelic word spelt craic...
...Why is this a problem...
...Paul E. Bramell, CEO The Seniors Coalition Washington, D.C...
...Byron to be the recipient of distorted and misleading information in regard to some of these organizations...
...Basically, it doesn't...
...AntiFDR diehards sometimes referred to him as "that cripple in the White House," but even rock-ribbed Republicans usually considered that below the belt...
...All any reporter would have had to do is call the state capital in Richmond to verify the corporate records...
...Sandra L. Butler, President United Seniors Association, Inc...
...How inequitable that some make money and some are "cash-starved...
...Personally, I find many of these gimmicks an insult to my intelligence, and a total turnoff...
...What's the problem...
...Readers of The American Spectator deserve better...
...Direct-Mail Deviltry" is long on insinuation supplied by liberals like Senator David Pryor and short on evidence of wrong-doing on the part of those conservative activists mentioned in your pages...
...Winchell after Mr...
...Robert S. Kennedy, Jr...
...Does this mean that they are being tricked...
...Take the Clinton "Health Security" Act...
...Golly...
...Most of mine are...
...I'm frankly puzzled by his sources...
...4. Byron writes: "Generating one's own list is lucrative, but this is not to ignore the service fees from the mailing itself...
...In my house, I refer to our presidents (Binary) as "condom-loving Communists...
...chapter development, radio and television advertisements on the Clinton Social Security tax increase, radio and newspaper advertisements on the health care reform battle, and town meetings in more than twenty cities across the country...
...Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Tucson, Arizona I am writing to express my astonishment and disgust with Christopher M. Byron's article...
...Enclosed is: $ for insertions...
...Section 5434, §226, stated: "Whoever directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers, or promises anything of value to a health care official . . . to influence any of the health care official's actions, decisions, or duties relating to a health alliance or health plan . . . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both...
...Take the Seniors Coalition, for instance...
...3. Return this form to us at the address listed below...
...And we haven't seen Christopher Byron, or anybody else from TAS, at National Archives II in College Park, Maryland, poring over documents from the Clinton Health-Care Task Force...
...We have a dedicated, honest staff that refuses to allow a buried past to detract us from our mission...
...take It is depressing enough that good science is routinely attacked by the cultural left...
...Our agency fees are traditional and competitive...
...But Section 5434 stood and we stand by our analysis of how that section would have affected patients who wanted to purchase care from a non-alliance doctor...
...This would not have been possible without Steve...
...Renew my subscription for one year (twelve issues—$35) O Payment enclosed Bill me later Name (Please Prim...
...You may doubt it, but Hillary Rodham Clinton does not...
...Roosevelt made no effort to conceal his physical disability from the crowds that greeted him when he traveled...
...No way was his handicap secret...
...You owe an apology to Stephen Winchell and all the other direct marketers who have been out in the trenches toiling for the movement...
...Jerald A. Berman Florida, New York Christopher M. Byron's article tells us more about the journalistic ethics of Mr...
...Among these groups are TAS, NR, Human Events, National Right To Work Committee, The Conservative Caucus, ACU, English First, Washington Legal Foundation, AIM, and National Taxpayers Union...
...Unfortunately, I believe Mr...
...Fundraising was tied to his birthday each year: that week, all movie theaters nationwide showed a March of Dimes film with a message from the President, and we all put our dimes in the collection cans the ushers passed around...
...It certainly appears that the Seniors Coalition and United Seniors Association, Inc...
...North raised "close to $14 million...
...It is shameless that certain organizations have made it their business to frighten older Americans into sending in money for phantom "advocacy and services...
...Judith A. Cass Chevy Chase, Maryland . . . I am replying to Christopher M. Byron's article wearing two hats: one, that of a donor, and the other, that of a vice president of Stephen Winchell & Associates, the agency most maligned in the article...
...Could you really get "Five Years in Jail if You Buy Extra Care...
...My subscription to Reason magazine has brought me requests from a slew of interesting libertarian organizations I never knew existed...
...I wonder why they are not offended by the people you write about, rather than the magazine...
...3. Byron not only implies but states that my company is making money from ACHCR...
...It was the New Republic, not The American Spectator, that broke the details about what was really in the Clinton Plan...
...Box 657, Mt...
...or it has a check for a dollar that you can cash for reading the material enclosed (which is then politely asked for back...
...True, Roosevelt wanted people to ignore his physical handicap and concentrate on his unimpaired political capacities...
...Byron has unwittingly misled readers by focusing on a past, failed relationship with one or two individuals, and by not following up with the growth and development of the organization as it is today...
...The two overriding goals of the liberals are (1) trying to limit conservative access to the media (and controlling the message that slips through) and (2) destroying the source of conservative money...
...However, the Clinton Plan provided the same penalty to anyone who accepted a "bribe" (any payment that violated the government price controls...
...Rita B. Simmons Port St...
...everyone understood...
...Nowhere do you mention that it was The American Spectator February 1995 73 the liberals who forced the conservatives to develop the low dollar mailing lists...
...Camarillo, California...
...Yet Mr...
...Actually, the Postal Service is conducting an investigation to determine if we have been a victim, not an instigator, of unsavory practices...
...Byron put it...
...Or is the author saying that there is a special subset of the direct-mail business that is sleazy...
...In closing, the Seniors Coalition has been, and continues to be, an effective lobbying force for senior citizens looking for a common-sense approach to government...
...Everyone knew...
...My thanks to The American Spectator for addressing the question of political direct-mail campaigns...
...Catharina Day, in her Cadagon Guides' Ireland (1988) defines crack as fun or lively chat, and identifies the word as an Ulster expression...
...My donations to the National Yiddish Book Center have led to a deluge of mail from the American Jewish Congress, organizations to help Ethiopian Jews in Israel and blind Jewish children, the Jerusalem Post, and many more...
...But everyone saw...
...Some direct-mail companies may charge an organization a flat creative fee plus a royalty or mail fee on each package mailed, and a fee for production coordination...
...The Seniors Coalition's former relationship with Richard Viguerie and Dan Alexander is offered as an example of the evil that lurks among direct mail shops...
...William H. Shaker Volunteer President American Council for Health Care Reform Arlington, Virginia (continued on page 73) 12 The American Spectator February 1995 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 12) Christopher M. Byron's article should pretty well kill conservative fund raising...
...Just be sure to allow six weeks for your change to take effect...
...What I said in the story is that the first time the group came to public attention was during the 1993 health care debate...
...Patients probably wouldn't be jailed—it would be politically unacceptable, at least at present...
...It's the for-profit marketing company that lurks [sic] in the background that makes the money—from fees collected on each mailing the marketing company puts out...
...Ted Thaxter Lone Pine, California . . . The economic assumptions underlying Christopher M. Byron's article are more expected in the Nation than The American Spectator...
...Tyrrell, we rely on direct mail...
...True, the press did not describe his physical limitations or his heavy braces, and photos and newsreels never showed his painful movements—but they didn't lie about the fact of it...
...We alone have fought for seniors on issues like the "raid" on the Social Security Trust Fund, the "raid" on pension funds, the earnings limitation on Social Security, and the seniors-only tax in the 1993 Clinton Budget...
...Ad Classification: (Please Print) Name: Address...
...First, the article cites approvingly Senator David Pryor's denunciation of seniors organizations that opposed the Clinton health-care plan...
...This being the case, then what organization or organizations can we support to try and offset the socialist political activities of the AARP...
...Clarence Mercer LaGrange, Wyoming I'm not a subscriber to The American Spectator although I frequently read it...
...It's clear Byron doesn't know what the bill "actually" proposed since he never talked to us about our interpretation of Section 5434 of the act and clearly doesn't understand the effect of that provision on individuals...
...To the best of my knowledge all of the organizations I have listed are honorable and effective...
...It has a completely new staff under the direction of myself and the one person who effectively 74 The American Spectator February 1995 sought the ouster of Mr...
...And what's wrong with Viguerie using the names to "raise money for yet more bootstrap candidacies such as North's...
...I would have retired to Florida...
...I have had my share of that garbage...
...The one I am particularly concerned with is the one I head, the Seniors Coalition...
...It was commonly said of his peripatetic wife that she served as his legs...
...I knew it as a child in Iowa...
...They would just refuse to deviate from the dictates of the plan administrators...
...Christopher M. Byron has performed a public service by exposing the interrelationships among groups like Seniors Coalition, United Seniors Association, and 60-Plus...
...Where were responsible Americans hiding when Gerry Adams and his band of thugs were allowed into the United States...
...Those dimes paid for the research that led to the Salk and Sabin vaccines, and that's why FDR's face was put on a dime...
...Winchell's firm, one way or another, on yet more fundraising...
...In fact, the article quoted a committee spokesman as saying the firm was dropped because "it was not performing satisfactorily...
...We at AARP appreciate your efforts to educate the American public on an issue that directly affects our members...
...Alan Charles Kors Professor of History University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Crackhe,ads Concerning Edward Conlon's "Gerry Adams Spectator" ("Belfast Americans," TAS, December 1994), I for one was appalled, embarrassed, and ashamed that these persons are representing my country in the United States of America...
...The whole country—indeed the whole world—knew that he couldn't walk, knew he was in a wheelchair...
...Alexander about our agency or clients is biased and therefore worthless...
...I've often thought of writing one of the major conservative magazines such as TAS or National Review to suggest that they devote an article to exploring this phenomenon that has become somewhat of a quandary to many conservatives...
...Talk about biased journalism...
...I am disappointed that Mr...
...You can learn about things that even the American Spectator doesn't report...
...Judith Kaplan Warner Rohrersville, Maryland I want to thank Christopher M. Byron for his excellent article...
...Those documents are on view, possibly for a limited time only, thanks to the lawsuit captioned Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, et al...
...Here are the facts...
...Pre-payment required for all ads...
...Byron reports that the Postal Service is conducting an investigation of our practices...
...The author finds it shocking that nonprofit organizations whose goals include public education spend a lot of money on public education...
...whatever else it was engaged in prior to that time, it certainly wasn't making news...
...At least the junk mail writer for the American Council on Health Care Reform (ACHCR) read it...
...Any suspicion of illegalities...
...And, heaven forbid that anyone freely enter into a contract, the provisions of which are not approved by an "authority" cited by the author...
...What does "absorbed" mean...
...Attached to this letter is a certificate of incorporation for the American Council for Health Care Reform issued by the Virginia Corporation Commission more than eleven years ago on May 26, 1983...
...I find it disturbing that your magazine would grant such credibility to the claims of one of the most liberal members of the Senate when it comes to his statements about conservative organizations...
...But of course in listing them I run the risk of looking like a fool if it is revealed tomorrow that the leaders of one (or more...
...The author should certainly know that Pryor's attacks are simply partisan political attempts to silence the opposition to his fellow Arkansan's grandiose schemes...
...Ulster people soundmore like lowland Scots than persons from Liverpool or Dublin...
...it's a way for me to find out what else might be worthwhile...
...If you accuse those who mention the penalties in the Clinton Plan of being scaremongers, you ought to take a careful look at the draconian penalties that already exist—and are being imposed—under Medicare and Medicaid price controls...
...Was I contacted about the story...
...And he is a truly caring person...
...There are also factual errors in the article...
...Many days, I get three copies of the same letter on the same day...
...His courage in overcoming his handicap was in fact one of the reasons he was admired...
...And it's fine with me if one organization rents my name to another organization...
...That was no secret...
...In my opinion, these groups have been allowed to masquerade as legitimate seniors organizations for too long...
...Melinda Bowman Brier Hill, Pennsylvania P.S...
...A more precisestatement of what actually happened—fully described in the surrounding context of the word in question—would have been that 80 percent of the coalition's fundraising wound up being spent by Mr...
...Stephen H. Winchell, President Stephen Winchell & Associates, Inc...
...are basically just money raisers for the people who run them...
...Let me examine Byron's innuendoes about the American Council for Health Care Reform...
...I have given to some groups, but my table is covered with this material again within a week...
...Because of my knowledge of print production, ACHCR always gets the best price for printing, often paying half of what other organizations might pay for a similar printed piece...
...Fairfax, Virginia Christopher M. Byron attempts to distinguish between successful uses of direct mail and shady uses of direct mail among conservative organizations...
...Byron states "no direct-mail effort better illustrates the incestuousness of the industry—and the possibility for abuses that such clubbiness fosters—than the Seniors Coalition and its various spin-offs...
...We have spoken in the interest of senior citizens while other seniors groups have remained silent...
...As a conservative who has supported the magazine for many years, I am shocked and troubled by Christopher M. Byron's article...
...He writes "How does a group like the ACHCR benefit...
...The ACHCR list is not on the rental market...
...I am also very concerned that you allowed your magazine to be used by Philip Alexander to wage a personal vendetta against his former employer, Stephen Winchell...
...Alexander claims he wasn't "fired" by Mr...
...She told the person to call back during regular business hours...
...I suspect you have been duped...
...He stopped once in Cedar Rapids and, perched on my father's shoulders, I saw him drag himself onto the back platform of his train, leaning on the men beside him...
...I guess I just don't get it...
...FDR's Paralysis In his review of Doris Kearns Goodwin's new biography of the New Deal Roosevelts (TAS, December 1994), Joseph Shattan repeats an error that has recently been gaining currency when he writes, "Most Americans hadn't the vaguest idea that the man they had elected president for four consecutive terms was a paraplegic...
...Byron than it does about the ethics of direct-mail marketing consultants...
...This schoolteacher, whose sisters exorcised the evil spirits by gouging out her eyes, is from Arcadia, Louisiana...
...Alexander and Mr...
...Do they care that a Seniors Coalition direct mail campaign saved their COLA...
...Second, Denison Hatch's statement, "At least 30 percent of the companies in [direct-mail fundraising] are out-and-out frauds," is undocumented...
...How's this for sleaze...
...Consider the American Council for Health Care Reform...
...After the article appeared in print, a new SW&A account assistant told me she received a call from a writer at 6:30 p.m...
...The March of Dimes, the campaign against polio, was openly inspired by Roosevelt's personal tragedy...
...That is simply not true...
...Dan Calabria South Pasadena, Florida Christopher M. Byron replies: There's a lot of rhetorical squealing from the direct-mail fundraising crowd in this obviously orchestrated letter-writing campaign, but the letters themselves turn out to be woefully short of evidence that anything in my story is factually wrong...
...Alexander is a disgruntled ex-employee...
...Or they would throw the solicitations away...
...Thank you for exposing some of the con games enjoyed by the money raising mills used by some so-called "conservative" groups...
...Lucie, Florida Not Getting It In almost every issue of the American Spectator, I find a letter from one of your subscribers who is offended by your articles...
...However after reading this article, my support will be doled out much more judicially...
...Arlington, Virginia I want to thank you for "Direct-Mail Deviltry...
...From my now rather distant college days I have contributed to a growing list of conservative causes that I regarded as having philosophical views amenable to my own and that I hoped were spending their funds responsibly...
...IRS violations...
...Byron's days, evenings, and weekends are donated to the public interest...
...In the three years since our incorporation, United Seniors Association has served its constituency well and honestly...
...Winchell's unsupported assertion, that my article's criticism of his operation is based on the ravings of a disgruntled ex-employee, is just plain wrong...
...By publishing this article, you played right into their hands...
...The interview took place during the Reagan presidency...
...425-2 inch...
...It began as a way for startup organizations to compensate their agencies when they didn't have a lot of cash...
...Winchell at all...
...No, we did not "absorb" $8.8 million...
...Mr...
...The other letters are much the same...
...And, it was pioneers in the business—like Richard Viguerie and Stephen Winchell—who conservatives can thank for the money pouring into campaigns today...
...Well, joint ownership of names is a concept that has come and just about gone...
...IMPORTANT Allow six weeks for address change...
...That fact alone makes it painfully obvious that the author of the article doesn't know squat about how direct mail works...
...Definitely...
...Current Wisdom, TAS, October, 1994...
...I resent Byron's innuendoes, and I resent the necessity of taking time from useful activities to answer these scurrilous and uninformed personal attacks...
...Howard Segermark, President The Segermark Company Washington, D.C...
...Many of the people who received the new mailings would be interested to hear about allied causes, and would willingly donate money...
...Most often, the request is at the end of a survey to be filled out...
...And whether Viguerie shared ownership or not, North would be renting his names out like mad after the election...
...Cass says he is...
...Christopher M. Byron makes me think I should read my junk mail more carefully...
...Shaker's assertion that the article wrongly says his company is "making money" from the ACHCR, here's what the article actually says: It reports that in an interview with me, Mr...
...After reading your November issue, I know why I'm not nor ever will be a subscriber...
...Horace B. Deets, Executive Director American Association of Retired Persons Washington, D.C...
...The individual in question, Philip Alexander, has a rather different view of his past association with Mr...
...Shaker emphatically insisted that his company, Washington Marketing, had never done any work whatsoever for the ACHCR...
...Few doctors would risk incurring such a penalty, especially not in a system filled with paid informers...
...His courage in overcoming his handicap was one of the reasons he was admired...
...In other words, yes...
...Since everyone knew, that reticence was considered merely a respectful courtesy to the President of the United States—a notion that now seems as quaint as discretion...
...Warner (a Winchell employee) calls it "sleazy" to report that the National Republican Congressional Committee dumped her firm in 1994, saying the termination amounted to nothing more than "a client [changing] agencies...
...The article unfairly attacks conservative fundraising in general, but also singles out my agency and several of my clients for particular abuse...
...Habitat for Humanity notwithstanding, they are nasty people...
...Joe B. Gambill Dallas, Texas Christopher M. Byron's article was interesting, informative, and rather scary...
...No concealment there...
...Rather than making money, ACHCR has cost us tons of money...
...ACHCR was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit...
...Byron apparently didn't...
...You may be unaware that other major seniors groups receive substantial portions of their funding from government grants and contracts...
...As you know, conservative grassroots lobbies rely heavily on direct mail because, like talk radio, it is one of the best mechanisms for educating the grassroots on issues...
...He couldn't have written a better personal attack piece...
...It's their choice...
...Then, after a hostile attempt on his part to divide and potentially bankrupt our advertising agency, I bought out his partnership and fired him...
...Why the hype...
...Winchell's decision to take on the Seniors Coalition as a client...
...One final point...
...There is no Gaelic work craic, according to Malcolm MacLennan' s Gaelic Dictionary (1979...
...I sure wish our agency had billed the Seniors Coalition $8.8 million...
...In the post-Watergate years, the liberals legislated away the conservative major donor sources of money...
...You don't talk about campaigns won or legislation passed or stopped...
...While I understand that there is significant pressure to try to raise money (especially for conservatives fighting incumbent entrenched liberal candidates with huge warchests), I find this constant postal assault and moronic techniques offensive and bothersome...
...Tyrrell, because we don't rely on the government...
...The ACHCR membership list is owned exclusively by ACHCR...
...We rely on direct mail to reach out to the millions of senior citizens whothink the AARP is on their side in Washington...
...asking questions about which she knew nothing...
...that's why they send their $25 or $100...
...has started programs in 43 states and 380 cities, and every year rehabilitates more than 4,000 homes owned by the poor, elderly, and handicapped...
...Winchell, who may be just as fine a fellow as Ms...
...I can only hope other publications will follow suit...
...We rely on direct mail to contact our members when Washington politicians are about to sell them down the river...
...I doubt it...
...For 60-80 percent of collected money to be used for the cost of collection alone is ludicrous, and reminds me of the "outstanding" efficiency of governmental bureaucracies that conservatism is supposed to be against...
...Winchell seems to have...
...American Spectator editors go out of their way to put service fees in italics...
...I somehow thought North's enemies were peeved because he had so much money from his national direct mail to spend on his campaign...
...Although these are legitimate charges, neither my company nor I charge the American Council for Health Care Reform any of these fees...
...Bradley S. O'Leary, President PM Consulting Corporation Washington, D.C...
...Asked by the interviewer if they thought Ronald Reagan was a racist, Rosalynn Carter replied in her usual condescending, saccharine manner, "I think he makes us comfortable with our prejudices...
...Byron did not contact me before the article was published, so I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight about USA, Inc...
...We rely on direct mail, Mr...
...Miss Obasi returned to her classroom but found she can no longer teach without her pupils...
...Winchell is right in saying that my article was possibly misleading in asserting that his firm "absorbed" 80 percent of the money raised by the Seniors Coalition...
...When secu(continued on page 79) The American Spectator February 1995 75 r MOVING...
...The article then went on to quote an account executive at the Ohio printing plant that handles ACHCR's business as stating that Washington Marketing functions as the actual brokerage firm for ACHCR's printing jobs...
...Christmas in April–U.S.A...
...But groups who form to influence Congress can only mail under a charitable status because the IRS has ruled that if they are not a charity they have to pay corporate taxes on all of the money they receive, whether they break even or not...
...Or I can use the solicitation for kindling...
...The American Spectator Subscriber Service P.O...
...2. Byron states that an ACHCR mailing dealing with five years in jail if you buy extra care in the Clinton bill was an exaggeration of what the bill "actually" proposed...
...1. Byron writes: "According to the mailing's letterhead, it [the Council] was established in 1983...
...The Seniors Coalition today is quickly becoming the advocacy alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons...
...of these groups have been spending mostof their funds on Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon...
...Don't we want more non-professional politicians...
...Without direct mail, Jesse Helms, Lauch Faircloth, Phil Gramm, John Tower, and many other bearers of the conservative standard would never have been senators...
...Shaker distorts my article in saying that, in effect, it accuses him of claiming on his letterhead that the direct mail outfit he and his wife founded—the American Council for Health Care Reform—was established in 1983, when in fact it didn't exist prior to 1993...
...But a search of news archives reveals no mention of the organization prior to 1993...
...If this is true, why not name them and do us all a service...
...In any case, I'd like to know how my company becomes lumped in with the frauds...
...However, if ACHCR should decide to rent its membership list, list-rental income would enure exclusively to the benefit of ACHCR...
...When I came on board two years ago, it was with the clear mandate to run the organization based on the highest ethical standards and to put it on a sound financial basis so that members' contributions would be used as effectively as possible...
...Special Discount Offer Pre pay for 3 ads and get a 4th ad free...
...Thank you for this comprehensive look at the inner workings of the direct-mail industry...
...Or is the problem that Richard Viguerie can use the names North has acquired...
...I, for one, applaud those direct marketing companies that are crazy enough to risk their own money on unknown and untested concepts in the name of conservatism...
...2. Attach the mailing label from your most recent issue...
...As a conservative small businessman, I have done my share of support for various conservative causes and candidates...
...You term one of our most scientific biological psychologists "the pioneering Doktor Professor McClintock...
...We've toiled in the conservative vineyard for over seventeen years, and we are proud of our professional record of success with clients like the Heritage Foundation, Empower America, Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation, and many Republican candidates and organizations...
...Please double Ben Stein's salary...
...A client changes agencies...
...FYI, the $8.8 million cost of this massive fundraising and public information campaign included such necessary items as postage, printing, computer services, etc...
...simply does not understand its nature or its significance...
...Similarly, he cites the Oliver North fundraising effort as an example of the dubious value of direct mail to conservative causes...
...Or did the Act simply "make it a crime for anyoneto bribe a government health care employee," as Mr...
...Philip M. Alexander, who is quoted in the article, was clearly the reporter's chief source of so-called "inside information" about my company and clients...
...He is truly (as my great-grandmother used to say) one of nature's gentlemen...
...For example, the author writes that "one way or another," SW&A absorbed 80 percent of the $11 million raised for the Seniors Coalition in 1993...
...Since contracts between nonprofits and their agencies are a matter of public record, registered as they are with forty states, any cub reporter could have found this fact out...
...Perhaps this article will help stem that tide...
...How terrible that these organizations hire firms which have expertise in reaching those in the population that share the groups' goals...
...It's not too common now, but even if it were, so what, as long as both parties agree that the list forms part of the compensation...
...He worked for me for some thirteen years, the last three as a partner...
Vol. 28 • February 1995 • No. 2
