Democratic Party Urges Everyone to Participate in Census
March 20th, 2010Republican Party Uses Census for Partisan Gain
The Alabama Democratic Party blasted National Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele in a press release this week for authorizing a partisan fund-raising mailing so close to the official census of 2010.
“The RNC claims this mailing is clearly marked as coming from the RNC, but conveniently absent are any disclaimers on the outer envelope. Just about everyone will open this mailer because there’s no way to tell it’s not junk mail,” Democratic Party executive Director Jim Spearman said. “Once inside, the RNC disclaimers are small and inconspicuous, and the questions are disingenuous and misleading. This mailer is borderline fraudulent, and Steele should be ashamed of himself for falling back on such a dubious fundraising tactic when it’s critical we focus on making the 2010 Census as successful as possible.”
The official 2010 Census of the Population is arriving in citizen’s mailboxes now. It is only 10 questions and is the shortest Census form in many decades. Respondents are encouraged to complete and return it by the end of April. An accurate response to the Census is critical in determining levels of federal funding for communities and will be crucial to next year’s redistricting efforts.
Joe Turnham, Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, encouraged all Alabama residents to fill out and return the census.
“The Census is extremely important, and the information is absolutely confidential. There are various groups and figureheads on the right making false allegations in an effort to dissuade people from completing the census, but their cries should be ignored,” Turnham claims. “I encourage all Alabamians to participate in this year’s census so that we will be fairly represented in Congress and so that the appropriate amount of federal dollars will flow to our great state.”
In an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote on March 10, 2010, the US House of Representatives voted 416-0 to ban any organization from using “deceptive mail practices that attempt to exploit the decennial census.” If passed by the Senate the legislation will outlaw mass-mailings designed to take advantage of the “United States Census of the Population” brand for partisan or for-profit purposes.
Despite intense criticism for a similar mailing in 2000, the Republican National Committee (RNC) recently mailed a “2010 Congressional District Census” to hundreds of thousands of voters across America, including thousands in Alabama’s Congressional Districts.
“We’re pleased that many Republican Congressmen finally joined with the Democrats in a bipartisan effort to pass this bill and that Senator Tom Carper of Delaware has stepped up to get it through the Senate,” Spearman added. “We call on Senators Shelby and Sessions to cooperate with Democrats in the Senate and vote for passage of this legislation.”
President George H. W. Bush’s former Census director Barbara Everitt Bryant blasted the mailing in a letter to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, saying it “blatantly attempt[ed]” to interfere with the 2010 Census and that the design was “clearly intended to confuse recipients.”
The Republican National Committee’s “2010 Congressional District Census” has similar format to the official US Census, including a “Census Tracking Code.” The front of the envelope is emblazoned with “DO NOT DESTROY, OFFICIAL DOCUMENT”.
Not only does the mailer look like an official census document, but it consists of a series of intentionally misleading questions, asking respondents their opinion on President Obama’s non-existent “scaling back” of the nation’s defense budget and the more overt fear-mongering question of “do you trust the Democrats to take all steps necessary to keep our nation secure in this age where terrorists could strike our country at any moment?”
Michael Steele encloses with the document a fundraising request for a “$15 donation to defray the costs of processing [the recipient's] Census Document.” Even a Republican Party official familiar with the mailing told Politico “duping people is the point. … That’s one of the reasons why it works so well.” The official suggested their “census” remains one of the party’s most financially successful mail programs.
In 2000, the US Postal Service determined that the previous RNC mailing was within the letter of the law because they did not display the full name of the US Census Bureau or use any official government seal. However, with the arrival of official US Census documents, the timing of the Party’s “Congressional Census” mailer was obviously intended to exploit Americans’ trust in the Census Bureau for their own partisan political and financial gain.
Information about the Census, including a sample form for those who may have questions about the format, is available online at the Census website.
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Tags: US Census 2010
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