Campaign Tip of the Day - Proof your Mailings!

In a strange twist for someone who ought to know better, a candidate for a local Town Council seat sent out a mailer with a headline reading that he was running for a seat on a different Council altogether in another town!

How does this happen? He claimed the error was the fault of the printer. He wanted the mail to get out fast as election day was near and did not have time to proof it.

Really? I always proof my mail before it goes to the printer, then again, before it is printed. Yes, typos and misspellings have been known to occur, but this is the first time I've heard of a mailer going out for a completely different seat in a different town.  If he didn't have enough time, he should have designated a trusted staff or volunteer to do the proofing. Printers don't generally create the mail, they just print what is sent to them by the campaign.

Well, live and learn, as they say. Here's the story with the erroneous mailer on display:

Right race, wrong town: Marin council hopeful sends botched mailer

By Richard Halstead
Marin Independent Journal

Posted:   11/01/2013 06:31:25 PM PDT

A campaign mailer for Steve Burdo mentions the Larkspur City Council on one side, San Anselmo city council on the other, as seen in San Rafael, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal) Alan Dep

Click photo to enlarge

A campaign mailer for Steve Burdo mentions the Larkspur City Council on one side, San Anselmo...

A candidate for San Anselmo Town Council who works as a campaign consultant sent out a mailer last week that accidentally read: "Please join us in supporting Steve Burdo for Larkspur City Council."

Burdo, who works as a public affairs consultant with Kathleen Russell Consulting, is one of three candidates competing in Tuesday's election to fill the two-year opening on the San Anselmo Town Council. The other two candidates are Doug Kelly, who sells computerized point-of-sale systems, and Matt Brown, owner of Meridian Commercial, a real estate brokerage.

Burdo said the mailer error occurred because the printer neglected to send him a proof of the design before printing and mailing it.

"The protocol for printing is that they put it in on the press, they develop a proof and then they email you the proof for approval, and you say thumbs up or thumbs down," Burdo said. "That never happened in this case."

Burdo said he wanted the mailer to go out as soon as possible so the printer was rushing to finish the job. Burdo, who worked on the campaign of San Anselmo Councilman Ford Greene, said he has never had a mistake like this occur with a client.

"It's very ironic that it happens during mine," he said.

Read more by clicking on the headline above.