Not many know better than me how difficult it is to separate the personal from the political, but I work in the industry, so that’s understandable.
When you don’t work in the industry, and you use information given to you in your capacity as a small business owner in a political fashion, you run the risk of alienating your audience and customers.
That’s what my longtime friend Jon LaBudde has done today by sending a political fundraising email to me as a subscriber of his Weekly Burg Blast — an otherwise well-done email newsletter normally reserved for the latest news about local entertainment and restaurants.
In the latest edition of the Weekly Burg Blast, Jon has allowed a local candidate, Dr. David McKalip, to take up the entire newsletter with a fundraising plea.
Admittedly, I support McKalip’s opponent — Darden Rice — but I do find Dr. McKalip an interesting, intelligent political figure).So my irritation has nothing to with the fact that this email came from his campaign.
My email address was given to Jon to keep me up-to-date about bands performing and restaurants opening, not to be hit up for campaign contributions. I feel my trust has been broken.
Mind you, Jon is entitled to his opinion, which I know he has no trouble expressing. And, in the past, he has advertised political fundraisers he was hosting. But that’s not what today’s email looks like. It looks like Dr. McKalip’s campaign hijacked the Weekly Burg Blast.
So I am sorry Jon, but when you start politicking like this, I have to remove myself from your e-mail list.
