(July 28, 2016) How much does it cost to be elected to the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, an unpaid volunteer position?
That’s impossible to say until after the election and the public knows who won and what they spent, but with a record number of candidates, it stands to reason that other records have been broken as well.
In the Bayside Gazette, for instance, five candidates and one political action committee have spent $2,175 on advertisements, as of the printing of this issue.
Several of the 11 remaining candidates – 12 originally filed – said they have spent several thousands dollars each on the campaign.
Frank Daly estimated he spent about $3,100 in total. That includes $1,000 for a combination ad in the Ocean Pines Progress newspaper and the Ocean Pines Forum website, $260 to create a candidate website, $200 for a banner ad in the summer mailing of the Ocean Pines newsletter, $450 for a one-month ad in the St. John’s church bulletin, $250 for yard signs, $175 for handouts and $765 for ads in the Gazette.
Although Daly said he spoke with a few homeowners who previously ran for the board, he really had no idea the election would be that pricey.
“I have not run for any kind of office – I’m trying to think back if maybe I ran for something in elementary school or junior high, but not that I can remember,” Daly said.
He said he looked into voting demographics in Ocean Pines, hoping to find a way to get the most bang for his buck, but largely came up empty.
“It was impossible to do,” he said. “For example, what I originally started off with was this kind of anecdotal information you hear that half of the people that own homes here don’t live here full time. So I was trying to figure where people vote from – do they vote from the 21811 zip code, or do they vote from Columbia or Philadelphia or Virginia? There’s no information on that at all.”
He said he eventually decided against doing a mass mailing because of his experience in sales and marketing – and his knowledge of the often-lackluster results.
“You typically get a two-to-three percent response rate,” he said. “And by the way, the cost of a direct mail campaign varies whether I would have done it myself through the post office or whether somebody like Copy Central would have done it, but that would have been more money than everything else combined.”
Daly said the post office quoted him at $0.44 per letter, along with two permits costing about $415 each. Copy Central, he said, quoted him at $0.36 each for a postcard-sized mailing.
One candidate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he bought 100 signs, sent a mailer to out-of-state homeowners and advertised in the Gazette. Altogether, he estimated spending about $2,500 on the campaign, largely out of pocket.
“I really thought I’d have a little more support on this, but it is what it is,” he said. “I know a lot of people have been out helping me behind the scenes and I have a lot of people in my corner. I’m very thankful for that.”
While he said the amount of advertising during the election was not surprising, given the number of candidates involved, he was surprised by the tone of some of the ads.
“The negativity within this whole election has been kind of a wakeup call that people really felt this way,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared for it – there’s some very unhappy people running.”
Three candidates, Tom Janasek, Brett Hill and Doug Parks, pooled their money to buy a mailer sent to all nonresident homeowners in Ocean Pines.
“Doug and I had originally talked about running together, and Brett came to us [later],” Janasek said. “We’re all of like mind with wanting to get the IT infrastructure fixed in the Pines and wanting to stop frivolous spending money hand over fist.
“We basically wanted to get an ad across the bridge to the people who don’t live here full time, and we wanted to pool our funds” he added.
He estimated about 3,400 letters were mailed. Janasek also put out 20 signs, costing about $15 each, and advertised in the Progress.
“I don’t remember seeing this many ads, but then again we’ve never had 11 candidates,” he said. “You obviously are going to have more ads in more papers, and in some of the Ocean Pines periodicals that they sent out.”
While Janasek said he was not a proponent of negative ads, he acknowledged they are a part of almost any political campaign.
“I wouldn’t run one. I don’t have any problem with anyone who does, but it’s the same reason I want to get on the board – so we can get rid of all that negativity and bickering and dissention. I didn’t want to run something negative just for that reason,” he said.
Steve Lind said he has spent about $600, including buying eight yard-signs, and putting ads in the Gazette and Progress. All of that was out of pocket, and he said that amount was far more than he anticipated.
“It’s a darn shame that people have had backers and donors who are backing them to support a specific agenda,” he said. “It’s a shame that an election of this level is getting into that. It’s really sad that money is even part of this.
“It’s an awful lot of money to spend for a volunteer position,” Lind added. “But what are you going to do? If you’re looking at what everyone else was doing, it seemed to me I didn’t have much of a choice. The ads were well worth it, but I drew the line at mailings.”
While he said he would have accepted financial backing if someone offered, Lind said preferred “a policy where you don’t take any money from anybody.” He also questioned why Ocean Pines would sell political ads in the summer mailer, which included a “Meet the Candidates” section.
“It’s fine [in a commercial newspaper], but why is the OPA putting candidate ads on the next page from the ‘get to know the candidates’ statements? That’s something that should be changed as far as I’m concerned,” Lind said. “I just don’t see the sense in that. I think it belittles the whole process.”
Until the election results are announced during the annual meeting on Saturday, Aug. 13, there’s no way to know which approach might have worked, or even if heavier spending had any affect. Other factors like performance at public forums and name recognition could be factors as well.
Daly offered a final thought on the subject.
“I was at the swimming pool the other day with my wife,” he said. “We went into the water and started talking with another couple, and we introduced ourselves. One of them said, ‘Your name is Daly?’ I said yes. They said, ‘we just voted for you for the board of directors.’
“They voted for me because my name sounded Irish,” Daly continued. “So, I thanked them for their vote. But that just goes to show you, no matter what kind of analytics and metrics you’re going to put in there, some people are going to get votes because of their name, some because of their ballot position, some because somebody likes their picture. It’s incredible how people vote.
“Who knows? We’ll see how it ends up,” Daly said.
That’s impossible to say until after the election and the public knows who won and what they spent, but with a record number of candidates, it stands to reason that other records have been broken as well.
In the Bayside Gazette, for instance, five candidates and one political action committee have spent $2,175 on advertisements, as of the printing of this issue.
Several of the 11 remaining candidates – 12 originally filed – said they have spent several thousands dollars each on the campaign.
Frank Daly estimated he spent about $3,100 in total. That includes $1,000 for a combination ad in the Ocean Pines Progress newspaper and the Ocean Pines Forum website, $260 to create a candidate website, $200 for a banner ad in the summer mailing of the Ocean Pines newsletter, $450 for a one-month ad in the St. John’s church bulletin, $250 for yard signs, $175 for handouts and $765 for ads in the Gazette.
Although Daly said he spoke with a few homeowners who previously ran for the board, he really had no idea the election would be that pricey.
“I have not run for any kind of office – I’m trying to think back if maybe I ran for something in elementary school or junior high, but not that I can remember,” Daly said.
He said he looked into voting demographics in Ocean Pines, hoping to find a way to get the most bang for his buck, but largely came up empty.
“It was impossible to do,” he said. “For example, what I originally started off with was this kind of anecdotal information you hear that half of the people that own homes here don’t live here full time. So I was trying to figure where people vote from – do they vote from the 21811 zip code, or do they vote from Columbia or Philadelphia or Virginia? There’s no information on that at all.”
He said he eventually decided against doing a mass mailing because of his experience in sales and marketing – and his knowledge of the often-lackluster results.
“You typically get a two-to-three percent response rate,” he said. “And by the way, the cost of a direct mail campaign varies whether I would have done it myself through the post office or whether somebody like Copy Central would have done it, but that would have been more money than everything else combined.”
Daly said the post office quoted him at $0.44 per letter, along with two permits costing about $415 each. Copy Central, he said, quoted him at $0.36 each for a postcard-sized mailing.
One candidate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he bought 100 signs, sent a mailer to out-of-state homeowners and advertised in the Gazette. Altogether, he estimated spending about $2,500 on the campaign, largely out of pocket.
“I really thought I’d have a little more support on this, but it is what it is,” he said. “I know a lot of people have been out helping me behind the scenes and I have a lot of people in my corner. I’m very thankful for that.”
While he said the amount of advertising during the election was not surprising, given the number of candidates involved, he was surprised by the tone of some of the ads.
“The negativity within this whole election has been kind of a wakeup call that people really felt this way,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared for it – there’s some very unhappy people running.”
Three candidates, Tom Janasek, Brett Hill and Doug Parks, pooled their money to buy a mailer sent to all nonresident homeowners in Ocean Pines.
“Doug and I had originally talked about running together, and Brett came to us [later],” Janasek said. “We’re all of like mind with wanting to get the IT infrastructure fixed in the Pines and wanting to stop frivolous spending money hand over fist.
“We basically wanted to get an ad across the bridge to the people who don’t live here full time, and we wanted to pool our funds” he added.
He estimated about 3,400 letters were mailed. Janasek also put out 20 signs, costing about $15 each, and advertised in the Progress.
“I don’t remember seeing this many ads, but then again we’ve never had 11 candidates,” he said. “You obviously are going to have more ads in more papers, and in some of the Ocean Pines periodicals that they sent out.”
While Janasek said he was not a proponent of negative ads, he acknowledged they are a part of almost any political campaign.
“I wouldn’t run one. I don’t have any problem with anyone who does, but it’s the same reason I want to get on the board – so we can get rid of all that negativity and bickering and dissention. I didn’t want to run something negative just for that reason,” he said.
Steve Lind said he has spent about $600, including buying eight yard-signs, and putting ads in the Gazette and Progress. All of that was out of pocket, and he said that amount was far more than he anticipated.
“It’s a darn shame that people have had backers and donors who are backing them to support a specific agenda,” he said. “It’s a shame that an election of this level is getting into that. It’s really sad that money is even part of this.
“It’s an awful lot of money to spend for a volunteer position,” Lind added. “But what are you going to do? If you’re looking at what everyone else was doing, it seemed to me I didn’t have much of a choice. The ads were well worth it, but I drew the line at mailings.”
While he said he would have accepted financial backing if someone offered, Lind said preferred “a policy where you don’t take any money from anybody.” He also questioned why Ocean Pines would sell political ads in the summer mailer, which included a “Meet the Candidates” section.
“It’s fine [in a commercial newspaper], but why is the OPA putting candidate ads on the next page from the ‘get to know the candidates’ statements? That’s something that should be changed as far as I’m concerned,” Lind said. “I just don’t see the sense in that. I think it belittles the whole process.”
Until the election results are announced during the annual meeting on Saturday, Aug. 13, there’s no way to know which approach might have worked, or even if heavier spending had any affect. Other factors like performance at public forums and name recognition could be factors as well.
Daly offered a final thought on the subject.
“I was at the swimming pool the other day with my wife,” he said. “We went into the water and started talking with another couple, and we introduced ourselves. One of them said, ‘Your name is Daly?’ I said yes. They said, ‘we just voted for you for the board of directors.’
“They voted for me because my name sounded Irish,” Daly continued. “So, I thanked them for their vote. But that just goes to show you, no matter what kind of analytics and metrics you’re going to put in there, some people are going to get votes because of their name, some because of their ballot position, some because somebody likes their picture. It’s incredible how people vote.
“Who knows? We’ll see how it ends up,” Daly said.