We’ve seen some daring and downright bizarre campaign tactics over the years — some reek of desperation, others are just in bad taste, and every now and then there’s one that probably seemed like a good idea when it was jotted down on a bar napkin late at night.
But the Mother’s Day post on Cary Kennedy’s Facebook page for the governor’s race is a combination of poor judgement, bad timing, and just plain tacky.
It’s kind of the same model as those poor starving children in third world countries asking for money, but instead this is Kennedy’s healthy kids who only want us to send their mom a Mother’s Day card.
Harmless enough, right? Mom is taking a break from being a candidate, her children who are about 10 and 12-years old just want us to sign their card by filling in the blanks for our name and email address.
Of course it’s just a thinly disguised, bait-and-switch tactic to draw the reader in for the sole purpose of hitting them up for a campaign donation and swiping their email address in the process.
If you sign Kennedy’s Mother’s Day card, this pops up:
In case Kennedy’s fundraisers haven’t noticed, folks are a little sensitive these days about their personal information being snatched, even if it’s just their email address —which we expect will be used for even more fundraising letters.
And do we really believe Kennedy’s children are writing their mother’s campaign ads for the Democratic primary election on her political social media account?
Are those children even old enough to be on Facebook?
Like we said, it’s tacky.