Marco Rubio is doing what he does best: pretending he is innocent and blaming everyone else.
Over the weekend there was an uproar by Rubio due to a mailer the Cruz campaign sent out. It was a voting report card giving voters an “F” if they did not vote in the last several elections.Rubio said Iowan voters approached him about Cruz’s mailer:
They were upset about it, obviously. They had people’s names and they gave them an “F” rating for how they voted. I think a lot of voters are disturbed by it.
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He also said it’s “an unusual way to end your campaign in the state.”
Well that’s ironic because Rubio sent out almost the exact same mailer.
Ted Cruz’s communications director tweeted a picture of the flyer and said “@marcorubio call your office. Voter report card mailer sent to Iowa voters from Marco Rubio.”
.@marcorubio Call your Office. Voter report card mailer sent to Iowa voters from Marco Rubio. pic.twitter.com/UQBTRWozex
— Rick Tyler (@rickwtyler) January 31, 2016
In response to Rubio’s actions, Cruz’s Iowa State chairman Matt Schultz told Breitbart News:
I think it’s bizarre that Marco Rubio criticizes Ted’s voter-turnout mailer. This is just another example of Marco wanting to take both sides of every issue.
Cruz’s flyer stated “VOTING VIOLATION” and it included names and percentage scores for each voter along with their neighbors scores. The reason to include the neighbors scores was in effort to get voters to encourage their neighbors to vote as well.
Rubio’s flyer was stamped “Iowa Caucus Report Card.” It also stated “Improve your score by caucusing on Monday February 1st.” Sound familiar?The reason the campaigns sent out the mailers is because a previous study showed it was an effective way to get voters to the polls.
As reported by The Washington Post:
Alan Gerber, Donald Green, and Christopher Larimer — two professors from Yale and one from the University of Northern Iowa — wanted to find out whether peer pressure and social norms could drive up voter turnout, so they mailed more than 180,000 Michigan households a letter telling them that they were part of a study, in which other people would find out if they stayed away from the ballot box.
“We’re sending this mailing to you and your neighbors to publicize who does and does not vote,” read one mailing, accompanied by a chart that noted whether or not their neighbors had cast a ballot.
The letter worked. Political consultants, like Democrat Hal Malchow, found that similar letters in real elections could boost turnout by up to 2.5 percent.