Lame-Duck Lutz Criticized For Legislative Mailer

The Republican seeking to succeed retiring Sen. Larry Lutz (D-Evansville) is complaining that Lutz sent out a district-wide legislative newsletter touting Senate Democrats universal health care plan, even though he's not up for re-election this year. Huh? You mean those newsletters are only to be used to aid an incumbent's re-election? That's what George Postletheweight thinks. He tells the Evansville Courier Press' Brian Corbin:

"I just don't understand sending it out," said Republican George Postletheweight . . .

Postletheweight said he was not opposed to legislative mailings, but he questioned the effectiveness of "mailing them at the end of a person's term."

Postletheweight said meeting constituents one-on-one is "better than mass mailings that look like junk mail to begin with."

The district-wide mailings to about 50,000 households cost state taxpayers about $10,000. All but one of Indiana's Senate Democrats mailed out newsletters according to the story. Lutz thinks his constituents are entitled to informaton as much as constituents elsewhere. "They're entitled to the same information in Southwest Indiana as are (constituents) in any other part of the state," Lutz said. Lutz also thinks his piece won't be confused for campaign literature. "When they go into the voting booth, they won't see my name in there," he said. He also said the newsletter generated a lot of phone calls to his staff from constituents.

Postletheweight's complaints are a bit ironic. Typically, candidates complain about their incumbent opponents using taxpayer-funded mailings for political purposes. Posteltheweight apparently thinks the right to use taxpayer-funded mailings should be reserved to incumbent candidates, which just goes to prove that the mailings are all about politics.