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Candidates'
wives make personal pitch
By Jeffery Robb
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER.
ARTICLE APPEARED ORIGINALLY APRIL 3,2005 IN THE
OMAHA WORLD HERALD
Liz Vokal loves
her husband dearly.
She said so in a letter asking voters to support
her husband, Jim Vokal, in his run for City Council.
Some might consider the letter sappy. (On their
wedding day, she wrote, she had to re-do her makeup
after Jim gave her a moving card.) For others,
the letter just might be a vote-clincher. After
it went out, the incumbent Vokal said, his wife
received letters in response that included campaign
contributions of $5 to $500, even flowers from
someone who was touched.
It's the second
letter of its kind this campaign season. Deb Suttle,
wife of council candidate Jim Suttle, sent "warm
regards" last week to registered voters in
District 1, putting thoughts about her husband
on paper.
Peter Valcarce, president of a Republican direct
mail firm, said the tactic clearly targets female
voters, particularly married women. Both Vokal
and Suttle said their letters were sent only to
women.
Valcarce said it's an effort to paint the candidates
as pro-family and caring about the future to the
big block of voters who are women. "You have
the so-called soccer moms," said Valcarce,
of the Salt Lake City-based Arena Communications.
"That's a huge block of voters."
Still, not every
spouse is penning an ode to a loved one.
While Vokal tries
to appeal to women in District 3, challenger Anne
Boyle is too - by pointing out that she is a woman.
A recent Boyle mailing highlights that only five
women have served on the City Council in Omaha's
150 years. Boyle said she wanted to show that
she's a qualified woman who would bring diversity
to the council.
Other campaign material shows Boyle's family.
But a spousal support letter? "Mike's not
sending one out for me," she said of her
husband, a Douglas County commissioner and former
Omaha mayor.
Rick Bettger, one
of Suttle's opponents, said his campaign is sending
a letter this week. But it's signed by him, although
still focused on his personal background. Bettger
said he decided against trying to tug at emotional
heartstrings. Bettger, who is challenging incumbent
Councilman Marc Kraft, is married with three children.
"I understand trying to appeal on some kind
of an emotional level," he said. "But
I think it sort of distracts from the issues at
hand." Suttle said he wanted to tell about
the person behind the candidate, and his wife
was a great person to do that after 39 years of
marriage.
Both letters tie the candidates' personal backgrounds
into their civic lives. Deb Suttle talks about
meeting her husband and getting established in
Omaha. Liz Vokal writes about their wedding day
and Jim's devotion to his growing family. Each
also tried for a folksy style. "See,"
Suttle wrote, "we met in college." "You
see," Vokal wrote, "Jim Vokal is my
husband."
Neither spousal endorsement would be confused
with correspondence from a pen pal. Deb Suttle's
letter is computer typed, her signature reproduced
in cursive. Liz Vokal hand-wrote her letter, although
it was copied for the masses. Each letter notes
at the bottom that it came from a campaign.
But Jim Vokal said his campaign took steps to
personalize his wife's letter - the envelopes
were hand-addressed and sent with a "love"
stamp.
If a letter is to be effective, Valcarce said,
it must look personal.
Still, the tactic is not one Valcarce recommends.
He said a letter risks being considered junk mail
because recipients must take the extra step of
opening the envelope. Of the 40 million campaign
pieces his company sent out last election, he
said, every one was a "self-mailer"
that didn't need an envelope.
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