Our local elections usually generate a few ads in the mail, but these last weeks it's out of control, and I'm starting to get a sense of what it must be like to be on the receiving end of such an onslaught. Our State Assembly member iis retiring and a half dozen people are vying to take his place (all are Democrats). The campaigns for what seem to be the two strongest candidates have been sending regular flyers in the mail, and both of the candidates have been to our housing complex; indeed, both have been at our door! Their positions seem comparable. Yet as early voting (which started the 15th) approached there were more and more flyers. A few other candidates have started sending more flyers, including one who seems to have hired a photographer for a single photo shoot with a single unnamed constituent, and another whose sole argument seems to be "elect a physician, not a politician"! Last week, a serious-seeming large format letter from state party bigwigs appeared, informing us that one of the candidates had misrepresented his opponent, apparently unprecedented in our district. A few days later, a photocopied letter from two dozen of our housing complex neighbors was pushed under our door, defending him against the accuation. Two days later, another photocopied letter, from another set of neighbors, renewing the charge, attaching the accusation. We went away for the weekend and came back to find three more flyers from the top two!! I've been generally bemused by the battle but I'm starting to think of the money that's behind these, more and more as I bring more and more of these glossy flyers to the recycling. I don't even more than skim them anymore, but I'm keeping a tally. Would it be perverse to vote against the one who seems to have the deepest coffers?
