Campaign mailer for special election disturbs resident

RALEIGH HILLS, Ore. – This weekend Daphna Stadig found what she described as a disturbing letter in her Raleigh Hills mailbox.

The letter was from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C., and it was sent to residents in the 1st Congressional District where Republican Rob Cornilles and Democrat Suzanne Bonamici are battling for the seat vacated by former Rep. David Wu. It thanked her for voting and then challenged her to "please look at this list and if you think some of your neighbors may not vote, please remind them."

Included in the letter were the names of Stadig's neighbors and whether they voted in 2008 and 2010.

"I was amazed that's legal to send out to a private citizen," Stadig said. "I was absolutely infuriated because I wouldn't want anyone to come to my house and tell me when I voted and when I didn't vote. It's an invasion of privacy."

Your name and whether you cast a ballot is public record and candidates frequently use the information to contact likely supporters.

What is not public record is how people voted, and that information was not included in the letter.

None of the people on Stadig's list live in her immediate neighborhood. But KATU News did find them living several blocks away.

One of the voters on the list didn't want to be identified but told KATU News she's not even a registered Democrat and said she'd rather not see her name on a letter that's going out to neighbors.

Stadig said she won’t be acting on the letter.

"We all have the right to make our own decisions," she said. "I do not want to infringe on anybody's privacy."

KATU News contacted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Though representatives there promised a call back, KATU News had not heard from them by deadline.

It's important to note that these get-out-the-vote efforts are not organized by the candidates. In most cases, the candidates don't even know it's happening.