Reel Me In

So yesterday I talked about how cheapskate Mark Sanford got "friends" to paint signs on their old plywood.  I based this on a quick Google search where there were a number of articles interviewing Sanford on how he came up with this "frugal" scheme, and how he claims it proves he will save you tax dollars.

Well imagine my surprise when I read Andy Brack's commentary in the April 5  issue of Statehouse Reports:

Following Sanford’s much-publicized fall from grace while governor, he has been talking squarely to the camera this year with a message of conservatism mixed with old-fashioned religious redemption. His campaign erects big plywood signs that say “Sanford saves tax $,” making it look like his professional campaign is so tapped out that it has to make its own signs. Hogwash. The wooden signs are more expensive (and heavier) than the slick cardboard ones, but Sanford knows the homemade signs look better for his image.

Which had been my first impression, but that slick SOB managed to get journalists to give him some great free publicity, as in the Island Packet:

"Leftover plywood out of a dumpster combined with a three dollar can of spray paint works just fine," Sanford wrote in an email blast this week, encouraging supporters to find their own scraps and fashion signs. "I even saw an old door being thrown into a dumpster yesterday that would work perfectly as a sign."

Meanwhile, his campaign is also shelling out money to make more of the plywood signs at $7 a pop. They're using leftover materials from previous campaigns.

The campaign calls it a great way to save money.

S.C. polticos are calling it smart messaging that reinforces Sanford's spendthrift reputation.

Think of Mark Sanford's plywood as Scott Brown's pickup.  It's a really clever marketing gimmick.

Not only does Mark Sanford have contributors with very deep pockets (and no old plywood doors lying around), but, like Brown, he happily throws his votes in with those wealthy supporters.  And, like Mitt Romney's comments about the 47 percent who mooch off people like him, Sanford has absolutely no clue, and certainly no empathy, for those of us who have had to struggle to make ends meet, for the working poor, for seniors who have held jobs through their lives and are now in fear of losing their safety net.

But I do have a solution and, to misquote Stephen Colbert, I would like to thank Mark Sanford for his inspiration.

I can't afford plywood and a can of paint, but I do have a pad of paper and a magic marker.  So I created a little hometown message of my own:

You can do it too, folks.  This can be a real grass roots campaign, and not a marketing gimmick.  Put that handmade sign in your windows at home and in your car.

Let's literally take this campaign on the road.

And don't forget:

Vote May 7

Elizabeth Colbert Busch

US House of Representatives

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/03/06/2407356/rudimentary-signs-make-for-sophisticated.html#storylink=cpy