IE Mailers For Cooper, Pan Employee Different Strategies

May 21, 2014 |

Registered voters in the California Ninth Assembly or the Sixth Senatorial districts have undoubtedly received any number of mailers sent by so-called Independent Expenditure (IE) committees. For the Assembly race, IE's have sent several on behalf of Assembly candidate Jim Cooper while Dr. Richard Pan has been the beneficiary in the Senate race.

While IE's are spending big in both of these primary races between Democratic contenders, they are employing different strategies.

Two similarly sounding IE's named Californians Allied for Patient Protection and Californians for Fiscal Accountability and Responsibility (CFAR) have sent out a number of mailers targeting Pan's main primary opponent, Roger Dickinson. Their mailers paint Dickinson, who like Pan currently serves in the Assembly, as a junket king of sorts.

While these mailer's focus on negatives about Dickinson, they do not specifically mention Pan. Likewise, another mailer sent by CFAR highlight Pan, a pediatrician, as a Dr. Albert Schweitzer for California kids without mentioning Dickinson.

In the race to replace Pan in the Assembly, Elk Grove Vice Mayor Jim Cooper has been the largest beneficiary of IE mailers. While Pan's IE mailers tend to be either exclusively anti-Dickinson or pro-Pan, Cooper's are mixed, it seems, depending on the mailing address.

In Sacramento's 95831 zip code, registered Democratic voters received a mailer from Californians for Jobs and A Strong Economy (CJASE) that on one side highlights Cooper's fiscal record during his 14 years on the Elk Grove City Council. On the flip side, the voters, which are in the Sacramento City Council district represented by opponent Darrell Fong, see attributed quotes from the Sacramento Bee documenting Sacramento city's recent fiscal woes.

Meanwhile, independent voters in Elk Grove received a mailer from CJASE with a ringing endorsement from Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis and no mention of Fong. No apparent need to mention Fong's name on Cooper's home turf.  

For their part, as far as we can gauge, Fong and Dickinson have not had any IE mailers sent on their behalf. Of course, this can change between now and the primary, or more likely, this coming fall.

There is one other thing worth noting on IE mailers sent of behalf of Cooper. All the IE mailers have identical font styles, list Cooper's campaign website and use pictures of Cooper that are used on his own campaign's mailers. 

IE mailer from California Apartment Association. 

Mailer paid for by Cooper's campaign.

IE Mailer from Californian for Jobs and
A Stronger Economy.