JeffreyHolland.net

1994 Election Strategy Survey * Abolish the IRS prospect * File Card housefile

(Pre-Contract With America package)

Prelude to a Kiss (Good-bye to 40 years of Democratic Party control) -- A sort of short story about writing for the NRCC -- over Newt Gingrich's signature -- during the year leading up to the historic 1994 GOP midterm election victories.

1994 NRCC File Card Housefile

This is an NRCC housefile mailing I wrote during the 1994 cycle. Click on any page to view a PDF file.

The Contract With America

I wasn't going to point this out, and argued with my ego about it for several hours. But in the end, my ego won. So here it is:

Request to self: Jeff, please ensure me that you are not about to take credit for writing the Contract With America.

Answer: Consider yourself ensured. I played no greater role in writing Contract With America than, say, the nice middle-aged man who runs the Staples where I purchased office supplies today. And no, that nice middle-aged man was not [insert name of any formerly respected and highly regarded but now discredited and largely irrelevant GOP campaign strategist here]. At least as far as I know.

Significant Related Fact: I did write a direct mail package for the NRCC very early in 1994 that was signed by Newt Gingrich – and might have provided some ground upon which the Contract With America was based. There. I said it. Entitled the National Republican Congressional Committee 1994 Election Strategy Survey, it outlines a plan to nationalize the mid-term elections by exposing the "Democrats' shameful 40-year congressional reign of unrestrained deficit spending, punishing tax hikes and criminal coddling."

Stating that the “results of this survey will form the blueprint for victory for our Republican candidates in November," the NRCC mailed the package to millions of American households throughout 1994.

In September, the NRCC released its nationwide strategy to win control of the House of Representatives as promised, in the form of the Contract With America. Suspiciously, much of its substance reflected material I had outlined several months earlier while writing the NRCC 1994 Election Strategy Survey package. Check it out for yourself.

First:
Read the NRCC 1994 Election Strategy Survey.

Next:
Read the Contract With America.

Then
Read this cool style sheet that compares excerpts from both documents side by side.

While I wrote a significant amount of material for the NRCC between March and November of 1994, I was still just a young copywriter and I want to make it very clear that – other than what is described above – I had absolutely nothing to do with the development, strategy, construction, propagation or anything else involved with what eventually became the Contract With America.

Abolish the IRS.

While this Tax Reform prospect package offers none of the fun, history or controversy attached to the 1994 Election Survey, this is a MUCH BETTER PACKAGE. I feel strongly that a great direct mail package will offer a product the reader will determine as valuable, and want to keep -- a product unobtainable from any other source. Like an interesting magazine article that one might save to share with others, good direct mail copy should include passionate analysis supported by a collection of well-researched data, advocate for rational policy solutions using language that is clever, clear and robust, and meet the highest standards of intellectual integrity.

This NRCC Tax Reform package was mailed both as a prospect and as a housefile mailing in 1998 and 1999. I originally wrote a lot of the copy when I worked on Senator Lugar's Presidential campaign, as he advocated replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax. When the NRCC offered me the opportunity to write and produce this piece, I jumped at the chance. It is still one of my favorites. And if the 1040 stamped ABOLISHED doesn't entice you, nothing will.

Turning Anger Into Cash Since 1966