Political mailings

There is a special election happening for the state house rep seat that represents my district. There are 4 candidates. I am volunteering for one candidate doing backroom stuff that needs to get done. Bookkeeping, financial management, tech support. I go out doorknocking every once in a while with the candidate, but my role there is to be supportive and record people's responses. Fairly low profile stuff, I would say.

In the 8 or so weeks of this election cycle, my husband and I have received campaign literature only from the candidate we already support. We have not received a single piece of mail from any of the other candidates - until today.

My husband received a postcard from the Republican-Running-As-A-Democrat. On the back, there was a handwritten note from a local businessman and member of the chamber of commerce urging my husband to vote for the candidate.

This by itself says nothing more than his campaign is finally reaching beyond their traditional base. I know he has a good voter database (it's listed on his campaign finance report). But every candidate decides which kind of voter he or she will target and in what manner. Until now, we just weren't in his target universe.

Receiving the mailing does not bother me. What does bother me, however is that the note written on the back is in Spanish. Apparently, they assumed that my husband, who is Latino, does not speak English. Not that he can't speak or read in Spanish, but English is his primary language. The assumption that we don't speak English bothers me. I've told this to the candidate that I support as well. We shouldn't assume anything about the Latino voter. According to the 2000 census, half of Latino residents speak English only, or speak English well or very well.

I support policies that require that signs, official documents, ballots, etc. be available in multiple languages. I would much rather have the money spent ensuring that a person whose mother tongue is not English understands what they are doing in the voting booth, on the road, and when they sign legal documents. However, the assumption that we do not speak English is patronizing. It is also patronizing to think that I am going to support you because you are Latino. There are a lot of Latinos out there that deserve to have the opportunity to represent our community. And there are many, many more that do not. I am certainly not going to vote for someone just because they speak Spanish. And I get irritated by campaigns that assume that we don't speak English.