Hawks puffs herself up, while slamming Matt Varilek, Corinna Robinson to try to raise money.

Paula Hawks had a fundraising piece hit mailboxes recently. And….. yeah, I was almost starting to feel sorry for her at this point. At least until she started to roll her predecessors under the bus.

Not only is the fundraising letter awful, but Hawks decided is was a good opportunity to rub Matt Varilek & Corinna Robinson’s noses in their loss in a weak attempt to make her campaign appear better:

With a strong female Democratic candidate running for this seat for the first time in five years …… Democrats have an historic opportunity in South Dakota this year.

and…

Although the state leans Republican, Paula can win by improving turnout in the Democratic areas of the state and by appealing to socially moderate Republican women, a constituency she has successfully won in previous elections.

In what is shaping up to be the “year of the woman” (with a female presidential nominee likely heading the Democratic ticket), Paula’s message will reinforce those at the top of the ticket. As importantly, Paula’s campaign will be well situated to work closely with and support other progressive groups active in the state.

Read it all below…

Hawks Campaign fundraising letter 2016

To begin with, I’m not sure what this letter is supposed to accomplish by slamming those who went before her.   “With a strong female Democratic candidate running for this seat for the first time in five years” comes off as a backhanded slap at the prior two Democrat offerings.

First off, when she says “strong female Democratic candidate,” She’s got 2/3rds of it right. But you need to redact “strong,” as she’s the worst offering the Democrats have sent up against Noem to date.

Aside from that, looking at how Dems have performed since Noem’s big win in 2010 – In 2012, Matt Varilek performed the best among the Democrats running for statewide office that year (42.5%). So Did Corinna Robinson in 2014 (33.4%).

Now granted, they were handily beaten by Congresswoman Kristi Noem. But at the same time, I don’t recall them going out and slapping at their predecessor in a fundraising letter in a weak effort to try to raise money.

And getting back to it, this was a fundraising letter? It’s not personalized.  It sets no suggested amount of donation. It absolutely does nothing to show the need for the money, or what the campaign will do with the money. It’s basically a lazy, blasé effort at raising money.

It might be an effective slam on the previous Democrat Candidates, but as an effort to raise money? Not so much.