Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune reports:
As one of your constituents in the 5th U.S. Congressional District I was surprised to receive a slick campaign brochure from you in the mail the other day on 8- by 12-inch card stock.Rahm Emanuel has been strangely silent on the Chicago Democratic Party Machine's giant tax hike which will give his district the highest retail sales tax in America at 10.25%.Just think, Rahm Emanuel's concerned about high taxes and he can't protest to his good friends Mayor Daley and John Daley(who pushed for the giant tax increases) whom he strongly supports.Rahm Emanuel is a beneficiary of Mayor Daley and John Daley's illegal patronage army.You'll notice four Roti family members got out the vote for Rahm Emanuel.Here's a stunning Roti family chart to get a feel of some Rahm Emanuel's campaign workers.(Remember the black dots are actual "made members" of the Chicago Mob).Between 2000 and 2005, Rahm Emanuel's Congressional district was number 8 of all Congressional districts for population loss.I guess people are voting with their vote out of high tax Chicago.
Rahm “Chicago Families Need Tax Relief,” said the headline on the front. Then, in smaller type under color photos of ordinary folks, “Congressman Rahm Emanuel is Fighting for Tax Fairness and Helping Families Afford College and Save for Retirement.”
The headline inside said you’re “fighting to lower taxes for middle-class families,” and the text boasted about tax legislation you’ve helped pass, introduced and proposed.
What surprised me was that you felt the need to tap into your campaign fund to advertise your virtues to voters. You won re-election to your third term in 2006 with nearly 80 percent of the vote, and as of now you have no real opposition in November.
Not very thrifty of you, I thought.
Not very seemly of you, I thought.
To use taxpayers’ money to design, print and send out a fancy mailer to tell taxpayers what a fine steward you are of their money takes a certain obliviousness to irony, at best.
Your spokeswoman Kathleen Connery said this a particular piece of mail cost around $30,000 plus postage. She stressed that it wasn’t any different from the four to six other mailings you send out every year under what’s called the franking privilege.
(I can’t remember even one of them; perhaps this mailing caught my eye on its way to the recycling bin because, like so many residents of Chicago and Cook County, I’m a bit raw these days on the subject of taxes)
She stressed that “Chicago Families Need Tax Relief” was approved by the bipartisan House Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards. And after skimming through the 66-page, comically specific regulation manual (.pdf) that guides that commission I have no reason to doubt her.
As you know, franking is widely practiced and designed for federal lawmakers to convey important information to their constituents and solicit their views. The lengthy regulations that bar “excessive use of personally phrased references,” lots of photos and biographical blather, solicitations, partisan references and so on are a testament to how persistently elected officials have abused this privilege for self-promotion over the years.
“Chicago Families Need Tax Relief” contains two elements that look to me like sufficient legal fig leaves. The first is a six-item tear-off questionnaire (it costs 41 cents for us to mail back to you our answers to such questions as “Do you think the federal government should do more to help the middle-class save for retirement?”). The second is the announcement of free, weekly taxpayer assistance programs at your Chicago office for families earning $40,000 or less.
I know, I know. This is an exceedingly minor matter, dollar wise. But symbolically, taxpayer sponsored bragging is wrong. And you, of all people, can afford to lead the way toward ending it.
Chicago families need vanity relief, too.
