BMW Direct Mailer For Georgia Republican Lands On Iowa Doorstep of Weekly Standard Reader

Take a look at the latest fundraising pitch from Deborah Travis Honeycutt, a little-known Republican running for Congress in a Democratic stronghold down in Georgia.

Or, we could say, the latest pitch letter drawn up by her Washington-based direct mail fundraising firm, BMW Direct.

That’s the company we told you about earlier this summer that mounts massive nationwide fundraising efforts targeting self-styled conservatives on behalf of long-shot GOP candidates.

They’re very successful at raking in money. But the catch is that not much of that cash ever gets to the candidates’ campaigns because almost all of it — sometimes upwards of 90 percent — is eaten up in costs related to the direct mail campaign itself. That helps BMW Direct pay the rent on its downtown Washington office, but doesn’t help candidates mount much of a ground campaign in home districts.

A TPM reader out in Iowa sent us this copy of the letter he received recently, where Honeycutt clearly underscores her race.

“I am the Democratic Party’s worst nightmare,” Honeycutt writes in her eight-page letter on small-sized campaign stationary. “Because I am a black Republican woman and I’m running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

“Self-appointed black leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have used their influence with black people in the Democratic Party to gain great personal influence. They’ve sold us out for 30 pieces of silver, and I intend to say so!”

That echoes a line from one of BMW Direct’s former clients, Ada Fisher from North Carolina, who also cited Jackson and Sharpton in one of her letters.

The TPM reader who sent us Honeycutt’s mailer said he’s convinced, based on the way the mailing address was written out, that his household’s contact information was originally provided by the Weekly Standard magazine, to which his wife subscribes.

So far, BMW Direct has helped Honeycutt raise about $2.6 million so far this election cycle, putting her among the nation’s top fundraisers.