The Mailer That Ended Dana Dembrow's Career, 2002

Dana Dembrow was elected to a District 20 House seat in 1986 and spent many years fighting with the rest of his delegation, which included Senator Ida Ruben and Delegates Sheila Hixson and Peter Franchot. All three wanted him gone, but they could not figure out how to get rid of him. Finally, Dembrow committed a critical mistake: he was arrested for hitting his wife. Right before the primary, this mailer featuring his mug shot and other like-minded lit swamped the district and Dembrow finally lost. After the election, campaign finance reports revealed that the rest of the delegation spent thousands of dollars on the lit. This piece has gone down as possibly the single most effective negative mailer in the history of Montgomery County.