I got Seehusen's letter with the poll about outreach to the left when I got home at midnight last Wednesday. Before showering and packing for a 4:50 shuttle pick-up to the airport, I dashed off this response:
My first reaction to your letter about outreach to the left was, "Hallelujah, I don't believe it!" My second reaction was: "I don't believe it."
In a recent e-mail to Geoff Neale on this subject, I promised $100 by return mail for any outreach project to the left. I am enclosing $100 for this purpose, having just received your letter. If the rightward tilt of the Party is as bad as I've been claiming for the past 7 years, however, the response to this poll will be overwhelming opposition to any such outreach. If my cynical suspicion is correct that this poll was designed to provide justification for not doing outreach to the left, while simultaneously creating the impression of openness to that project in the national office, then please apply the enclosed contribution exclusively to ballot access. I hope you'll soon be proving me wrong.