Needy in Nevada

Having worked on the fundraising side of political campaigns, I've seen the importance of good lists. Lists of key supporters and donors, lists of potential donors, lists for the direct mail shop to send solicitations, etc. Once you're on a list, it's pretty hard to get off, and good lists are valuable. Campaign finance reform and other legislation makes the information about individual donors (who give more than $200/cycle) public. Between tapping public records information, or possibly being granted access to other candidate's lists, you can supplement what you already have. Needless to say, we've gotten letters from a variety of candidates, some of whom we've never given to nor signed up to support (but they got my name from somewhere...).

All that is to say, I received a letter today. A direct mail piece urging my quick action to help defeat Senator Harry Reid. To be honest, usually I just toss these right in the trash, but I hadn't received one from this candidate before so I thought I'd give it a read.

Now, I know direct mail pieces are always "urgent" and that I must "act now" to avert some disaster or help make sure the quarter ends with good fundraising numbers. And maybe I've ignored the text of past letters, but this one seemed particularly needy. Here's how it goes:

Dear [name],
If you're the Republican I've been told you are, then I need you to find your checkbook right now.

Translation: I got your name from someone else's list and I'm trying to get you to contribute via this piece of snail mail.

The letter continues [the bold is mine, the underlines and italics are from the letter]

... And I need your immediate financial support!
[...]
I need an emergency donation from you for ....
[...]
But I need your help immediately.
[...]
What I need are 1 million patriotic Americans who love this great country enought to give $25 to give Harry Reid the boot. I pray that you are one of them.

Oh, and don't forget the "sticky note" affixed to the front of the letter, printed in "handwriting" font:

I need your help to defeat Harry Reid.

I wonder if anyone has done a study of word usage in campaign fundraising direct mail solicitations. (1) Is there some science behind the number of "I needs" a letter should contain for maximum results? (2) Do political parties differ in their solicitation language (e.g., "I need" versus "Please show your support")? (3) Do people really believe the letters are as urgent as they claim to be?

And on a similar vein, (1) is direct mail fundraising effective in today's economy and/or digital age (i.e., is response suffering because most Americans have less disposable income, or is the barrier to donation [check or filling out a form with credit card information] prohibitive?), and (2) isn't the political fundraising "scene" about due a disruptive innovation of some sort?

</end random rant>