hillary1984_sm.jpg I am amazed that we’ve reached the point where campaigns for the Presidential nomination cost one hundred million dollars.  And, like you, I’ve wondered how that money will manifest itself.  What part of it will I see?

On Wednesday afternoon, I voted early at San Francisco City Hall.  I also had the opportunity to sign up to be  a regular vote-by-mail voter (we don’t call it Absentee anymore in California, apparently).  I’ve never been a vote-by-mail voter before, and I was excited to sign up to vote by mail.  From now on, the San Francisco Board of Elections will simply mail me a ballot whenever there’s an election.  What could be simpler?

Imagine my surprise at what arrived in my email inbox the very next day, from Michael Trujillo, the California Field Director of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, with the subject To Do:

  For the first time since 1968, California is a battleground state in the Democratic nomination process, and your vote in California is going to help make Hillary our nominee. 

As an absentee voter in California, you should have already received your ballot, or it will be coming very soon. Be one of the first people to cast your ballot for Hillary in California by mailing it in today. 

Twenty-four hours after I signed up to vote-by-mail, the Hillary Clinton for President campaign had an email in my inbox reminding me to vote (for Hillary ) when I received my ballot in the mail. The email included a clickable link, where I could provide my contact information and advise the campaign when I cast my ballot (for Hillary). 

This means the San Francisco Elections Board provides a nightly file of new voters-by-mail, probably to every campaign that asks for it. But the intersection of our Boy Mayor’s endorsement and the huge amount of money to be spent in California really struck me. Presumably, the Mayor told his Elections Board to make this file available to any campaign that asks for it — on a nightly basis. And the Clinton campaign’s deep pockets enable them to take advantage of that and contact new voters-by-mail the day after they sign up.

Pretty slick, if you ask me. And I mean that in a good way.

Now that the presidential nominating contests have widened to include voters who have long wanted to have their say in the outcome, have you seen any indications where you live of how all this money is being spent?

Related posts:

  1. Funds Spent This Year by Health Care Lobby Would Have Insured All Who Died from Lack of Insurance
  2. You are mistaken. We are the ladies who lunch, not the ladies who vote
  3. Sunday Late Night: “A Marriage, If You Can Keep It”
  4. Late Night: Prop H8
  5. BREAKING: California Court Upholds Prop 8, Allows Existing Marriages to Stand