One of the latest trends in political fundraising is the “petition.” I get them in my email all the time. They go like this:
“The Republicans are about to do something awful. Please sign this petition to oppose it (oh, and please give me money so I can run for Congress and try to stop them.)”
State Sen. Scott Wiener crossed a line with the use of Sha-Carri Richardson’s Olympic struggle to raise money for his campaign.
The petitions, everyone in the industry knows, aren’t actually petitions in the way most of us think of them. I’m not sure most of these “petitions” actually reach any decision-makers.