Congressional Spam
An article in PC World describes how members of congress are buying email lists from commercial vendors at about 25 cents a pop.
While this should come as surprise to no one, it is mildly interesting to wonder whether their is going to be as negative of a reaction to this kind of email as to normal commercial spam. The Pew Internet and American Life Project published a report in October suggesting that public opinon shifts somewhat when the message is political in nature- instead of commercial. In that case, the percentage labeling the email “Spam” drops from 92% to 76% (here is that section of the report)
Additionally,
…about two-thirds of emailers (65%) do not consider unsolicited commercial email to be spam if it comes from a sender with whom they’ve already done business;
So, it would seem that your campaign/organization could get away with matching up emails to your previous supporters names and sending them email - even if they hadn’t opted in.
I am not ENDORSING that, but, I wouldn’t be surprised if that opinion continues to spread as people become accustomed to a lot of Spam.
On the other hand, as Spammers get more devious (and flood peoples’ blog comment boards) maybe there actually WILL be some sort of uprising… hmmm…