Planner Reads

I’m sorry for the MDE-style headline, but I am seriously, seriously furious about this. Only weeks before the Decennial Census is due to be conducted, the Republican Party has sent out a mailer that looks like an official Census document. MPR has the story:

Some Minnesota residents have received surveys in the mail called the “2010 Congressional District Census,” which asks for demographic information, opinions on issues, and checks made payable to the Republican National Committee.

The forms appear to have been sent out by the Republican National Committee. But the mailing is raising questions about whether people could confuse it with the real census forms all U.S. residents will receive this year.

The GOP says there’s no reason recipients should be confused, but that letter looks pretty official to me. This is a scam, but the worst part is that receiving letters like this in the run-up to the Census is going to make people leery about whether real Census documents are legitimate or another scam. I think the GOP needs to be penalized for this mailing, and harshly at that.