The Cookie-Cutter Ballot Campaign

Gone are those halcyon days of yesteryear when the Humane Society of the United States would concoct a crafty and original Internet campaign for each of its state-based laboratory experiments.

Compared with just one election cycle ago, the current HSUS efforts at "direct democracy" seem mass-produced.

Let's call it "factory ballot campaigning."

Just look at the websites for "Ohio Humane" and "Missourians for the Protection of Dogs"—both of which could easily be renamed "Stealth Carpetbaggers for PETA's Agenda":

Having a little déjà vu?

Both the Ohio website and its Missouri sibling are owned by HSUS. (The web domains were created within three days of each other.)

What's going on here? Will HSUS soon inundate both states with the same professional signature gatherers it engaged for Proposition 2 in California? And just how scalable is this politics-by-assembly-line model?

We picture Wayne Pacelle and an army of animatronic clones delivering identical, synchronized fundraising speeches in 30 states during the 2012 election season. Of course, when one of the speakers unexpectedly goes off his teleprompter, starts stammering mechanically, and moves his arms in a robot-like fashion, the jig will be up. (But we'll still never know which speaker was the real Wayne.)

Maybe we'll get lucky and both of this year's HSUS ballot measures will lose by the same exact margin.

It could happen.

Related People

Wayne Pacelle

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Posted on 03/25/2010 at 04:46 PM by the HumaneWatch Team

Gov't, Lobbying, Politics • (6) Comments

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Defeat those measures? (To borrow a phrase…) Oh, Yes, we CAN. We are the little train: I think I can, I think I can and keep repeating till we reach the crest.

Thanks for the info on the websites. I keep seeing “too similar” websites and wondering but wouldn’t have a clue how to find out those tech details.

Posted by PJBoosinger on 03/25 at 05:22 PM

The phrase, “Yes we can”, was originally the catch phrase of the cartoon character, Bob the Builder. “Can we build it? Yes we can.”

Posted by Yes we can...Bob the Builder on 03/25 at 06:13 PM

Not so fast, Bob the Builder. You’re forgetting about “Si, Se Puede!”—the early 1970s slogan of Cesar Chavez’s farm-workers’ movement. This roughly meant “Yes, it’s possible,” but I remember that by 1979 baseball fans in Anaheim were shouting “Yes We Can” at the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series. It got so annoying for Earl Weaver and the Orioles that after they won the series, they taunted the Angels with shouts of “Yes We DID!”

Sorry, Bob. Your cartoon mojo is no good here.

Posted by HumaneWatch on 03/25 at 06:50 PM

Here’s hoping we’ll all be able to taunt Wayne with chants of “Yes, We Did!”

Meanwhile, Go Red Sox!

Posted by JayInMaine on 03/25 at 07:07 PM

I live in Missouri and have heard rumors that they are already trying to collect signatures.

Posted by Sara on 03/26 at 09:28 AM

Not entirely surprising. They have generic, cookie cutter legislation for banning many reptiles and other exotic pets that they are trying to pass state to state.

Posted by SpecialtySerpents on 03/27 at 08:04 PM

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Mar 25 2010

The Cookie-Cutter Ballot Campaign

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