It's summertime in Tallahassee, Florida — the time of year when constituents plant political signage on their lawns like poorly considered tattoos. Every week it seems, a new sign sprouts up destined to survive by feeding on its own tackiness like an artificial, unkillable weed. Although political loyalty isn't pretty, it is offered by faithful voters at no cost to their party. Offering your very own property to advertise some person, some product, some idea, some thing, is a very personal choice. So you'd understand why I was unnerved when I pulled up to my home last week and found that our mailbox had been turned into a small billboard for Charlie Crist (if you're not from Florida and don't know Chuck, he's the guy most likely to take over Jeb Bush's very warm governor's seat this November). 

As you can see from the photograph, two pieces of collateral material were wedged between the outgoing mail flag and the mailbox. One was an informational piece discussing why one should vote for the man, and the other was a sticker that asked one to Vote Red to "Keep the majority in 2006." The Crist campaign had commandeered my mailbox, and every other mailbox on the block. Our house in the neighborhood had been Chucked.

Is this legal? I thought my wife, myself, and my mail carrier (and sometimes drunken teenagers wielding bats), were the only people allowed to come in contact with our mailbox. Perhaps I should locate Charlie Crist's home and place an ad for my business on his mailbox. Would he read what I'd left him? Would he call to hire me? Or would he just ask that I just not do it again? Since the above may be too much trouble I resorted to a solution that was a little more adult. Being an advertising professional who's familiar with outdoor advertising rates, I quickly:

1. calculated the typical traffic on my block in a typical 8 hour period
2. considered the size of each collateral piece (mostly a moot point)
3. and padded the numbers a little for having used the space without permission

I forwarded the invoice seen here to Charlie Crist's campaign headquarters but have not heard back. Perhaps they're out Chucking some other neighborhood.