100820 USPS 009a_1.jpg Connie Cruz, a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, checks addresses while delivering mail in West Salem on Thursday, October 8. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Good luck learning from campaign literature what local candidates would do if you voters put them into government power.
Expect, instead, to find candidates staking out vanilla positions.
A review of mailers and other literature for Salem-area office seekers finds, for instance, that they support working families. No candidate has likely ever come out against working families.
They want to reduce homelessness in Salem. Everyone in town does, but the candidates don’t share any ideas on how to do so.
Candidates for state, federal and local office spend thousands of dollars on glossy fliers with carefully-staged photos. Generally, voters don’t read much about how candidates would fix any issue.
Recently, Salem Reporter asked readers to submit literature they wanted checked for accuracy. The idea was to report on false claims or determine whether statements were true. Turns out, there was precious little information that could be vetted.
That is mostly strategic, said Christopher Shortell, a political science professor at Portland State University.
He said candidates deliberately keep campaign statements vague to avoid giving their opponents something they can hold them accountable to in the next election. Shortell said when they get more specific in their proposals, they run the risk of losing supporters.
“If you asked the public: ‘do you support protecting families?’ You’re going to get a huge number that are in favor of that. But as soon as you identify more specific policies that you would adopt to do that, the support goes down,” he said.
Deb Patterson, a Democrat running against state Sen. Denyc Boles, R-Salem, said in one mailer that she’s “standing for working families” and that she’s “taken a hands-on approach to health care from every angle.” Her literature provided no details on either.
Boles said in a mailer that she “won’t let pandemics or natural disasters keep us down!” In another, she promised to “work with our educators and students to ensure that they receive the tools they need in the classroom to prepare for their futures.”
Shortell said candidates are signaling indirectly to supporters where they stand on a variety of issues, often on matters not in their direct control even if elected.
For example, Danielle Bethell, Republican candidate for Marion County commissioner, said in one mailer she would “hold Portland extremists accountable.”
Selma Pierce, a Republican running against state Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said in a mailer that “Women are tough and resilient.” The mailer called for women to be respected in the workplace and for them to be given “equal pay for equal work” – already the law in Oregon.
Shortell said voters are left to interpret such an uncontroversial take in different ways depending on where the candidate stands politically.
For instance, a more liberal candidate calling for better treatment of women may be focused on protecting their rights, he said. A more conservative candidate offering a viewpoint opposed by feminists might use language intended to signal that they would still help women.
“It can play to their set depending on what else is around that language,” he said.
Shortell said the reality is that voters engage in cognitive shortcuts when choosing their candidate. The most obvious factor is whether to vote for a Republican or a Democrat, he said.
John Horvick, director of client relations and political research at polling firm DHM Research, said that campaign literature is designed for the typical voter who is unlikely to spend much time with it or have an in-depth knowledge of policy.
“It’s not that voters aren’t smart. They just don’t know the details,” he said.
That means that campaign literature that a voter may spend 30 seconds on is likely to be light on policy details, he said. Instead, the campaign literature is intended to get a voter to maybe check out their website and hopefully remember their name when it’s time to vote, he said.
Some candidates determine where the local electorate generally stands on certain issues and use the campaign literature to position themselves in a way that appeals to voters, he said.
“They’re trying to show that I’m someone you can pay attention to; I’m prioritizing the same things you are and I share your values,” he said.
Others, he said, may have ideas of where they stand and try to bring voters along with them, he said.
Earlier this month, DHM Research released the results of a survey gauging Salem residents’ opinions of the city. The survey found that homelessness was a growing concern for residents, giving candidates an issue to target, Horvick said.
Some campaign materials have taken aim at their opponents. A video from Patterson’s campaign criticizes Boles for participating in a walkout during the last legislative session that ended up killing new state wildfire resources. A mailer from Pierce accused Evans of associating with a group that wants to defund the police.
Evans said in an interview he wants to increase local police officers and state troopers. He also has the backing of state law enforcement organizations, including the Oregon Chiefs of Police, the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, the Oregon State Police Officers’ Association and the Sheriffs of Oregon Political Action Committee.
Boles has defended her participation in the walkout that was used to prevent a vote on climate change legislation. She said the proposal would have badly damaged the state economy and hurt working families.
She said Democrats, who control the Legislature, could have held votes on the wildfire legislation and other important bills earlier in the legislative session. They are now blaming Republicans for them not passing, she said. Boles also pointed out that the funding and other provisions of two wildfire bills (SB 5136 and HB 4168) didn’t kick in until later in 2020 or next year.
A stack of campaign mailers for the 2020 general election. (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter)
Shortell said if candidates are ahead in a race they don’t need to engage in negative advertising.
“You’re going to say these kind of vague statements, ‘the future is bright,’ whatever it is. All those kinds of sentiments are intended to communicate positive messaging so that voters have a positive impression of a candidate in their mind,” he said.
If successful, he said the mailers will leave voters thinking that the candidate would behave like them if elected.
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Have a tip? Contact reporter Saphara Harrell at 503-549-6250, [email protected] or @daisysaphara. Contact Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or [email protected] or @jakethomas2009.
