Speaker Hastert will be signing his book in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, August 19th

August 18, 2004 | me

[reformed_democrat]

Speaker Hastert will be at

Deseret Books
ZCMI Center
36 S. State St.
Salt Lake City, UT

Link to MapQuest map

signing his book, Speaker: Lessons From Forty Years of Coaching and Politics.

My good friend's husband works for the Speaker, and she said they were having a difficult time getting the word out about the signings. Apparently, thanks to CFR, the publisher, Regnery, is the only one who can put out mailings for this type of event. The RNC has mailing lists, but cannot give them to Regnery. The RNC could sell the lists to Regnery for "fair market value," but then would have to sell the lists to anyone who requested them, including MoveOn.org and the other freaks.

I've sort of become the un-official advance gal for this, since Regnery hasn't done a lot of promotion for many of these events. I've posted here (please ignore the obvious repeat of the first paragraph -- I'm running low on creativity) and here about these events, and according to my "source," the crowds are much larger after I've put up these notices. In one of the bookstores (I think it was New Mexico), the Speaker's booksigning actually broke that store's record for attendance. I wasn't aware of the signing in Seattle yesterday, and very few people showed up. I got a frantic call last night about tomorrow's signing, asking if I would please let you all know Speaker Hastert is coming to town. In my haste to get the address, I neglected to get the time of the event (oops). I'll post that as soon as I have it.

The Speaker has had a great time talking to FReepers and is really at his best in these one-on-one settings. So if you're not busy tomorrow . . .

Thanks.

[reformed_democrat]

Sorry to bother you all, but I'd like to ask for your help in getting the word out about Speaker Hastert's booksigning in Salt Lake City tomorrow.

Normally this sort of advance work would be done by the RNC, but because of Campaign Finance Reform the party is not allowed to work with the Speaker on anything that could be remotely connected to fundraising. Apparently in the eyes of the FEC, selling books involves fundraising so . . .

One lone FReeper (with the help of PING lists) is attempting to do the job of the RNC. I'm not getting paid, so I guess the FEC has no jurisdiction over me (yet).

Any help you can provide to let people know about the Speaker's booksigning will be appreciated.

Thanks

[reformed_democrat]

The booksigning will be from Noon to 2:00, Thursday, 8-19.

[Utah Girl]

Darn, I missed your announcement til just now. I couldn't have gone anyway, due to a previous commitment.