Pro-TABOR letter causes confusion

A letter that landed in thousands of Maine mailboxes this week designed to drum up financial support for the Taxpayer Bill of Rights campaign might have left some recipients confused.

First, the four-page fundraising letter included a Bangor Daily News editorial and identified the newspaper incorrectly as “the South’s oldest daily newspaper.”

Second, the Aug. 5 editorial reprinted in the letter is neither for nor against the TABOR initiative, which will appear on the November ballot.

Roy Leonardson, a spokesman for the TABOR campaign, explained Thursday that the letter instead was supposed to include a 2005 op-ed column written by Republican Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado, a supporter of the spending limits plan.

Leonardson attributed the mistakes to miscommunication between the campaign and the Chicago-based company that put together the mailer.

“I just can’t explain it,” Leonardson said.

The mailing was sent to between 6,000 and 8,000 people, he said, and cost about $3,500.

Bangor Daily News executive editor A. Mark Woodward said Thursday that, while the newspaper’s inclusion in the letter came as a surprise, he appreciated the TABOR campaign’s prompt recognition of the error and attempts to rectify it.

Leonardson said the campaign planned to send a corrected version of the mailer to a larger list of recipients, including those who received the incorrect information.