Okay /r/testpac, I get it, you guys got a billboard. This billboard will rightfully go down as one of the absolute worst pieces of political advertising of all times.

First, your message is not clear at all. Unless you think all of reddit lives in Smith's district, no one will know what in the blue hell you are talking about. Nor will they care. A casual consumer of political information cannot make any sort of judgement about this billboard, so they will disregard it. Scrap the whole design, and move it from the Internet audience, to Smith's district as an audience. Seriously people, using something the Internet understands isn't going to help your cause. Play off the notion that SOPA would impact them, not a cutesy censored bar.

Second, there are two Richard M. candidates. Do something about this. It makes no sense to ambiguously say Richard M. Why? Because you are splitting the anti-Smith vote into factions. Assuming Smith is in a safe district, and a national split of 40-40-20, you need to capture 51% of the 20. Pick a candidate, and go with them. (Hint, pick the Republican primary challenger because a Democrat will never win that district.) Even if you are not outright endorsing them, at least give the voter enough of a hint as to who they should vote for. Richard Ma [censored].

Third, change the color scheme. You are blatantly using Obama campaign colors, and designs. Guess what is going to automatically turn people off of the idea? This. They will think it is an Obama plant, and only galvanize their support for Smith. Play off the fact that it is a red district--avoid the blues at all costs.

TL;DR: Focus the message and pick a candidate. Avoid thinking the district is Internet literate/savvy. Change up to Red District Colors.

Source: Two congressional campaigns, three city councils, and PhD work in political communication.

Edit: Where exactly is the billboard located?

EDIT: THIS IS A REDDIT-WIDE CALL FOR IDEAS. PLEASE CROSSPOST THIS WHEREVER YOU FEEL WE CAN GATHER SUPPORT. IT SEEMS WE DONT WANT TO SIT THIS ONE OUT SO WE NEED TO RALLY THE TROOPS.

EDIT #2: THE PRIMARY HAS BEEN PUSHED BACK UNTIL AT LEAST APRIL 3RD. THIS WILL DOUBLE OUR PREP TIME.

While we are still debating how much support we share for Sheriff Mack, it seems that there is a major consensus on Reddit that we would like to see Lamar Smith pay for what he's attempting to do to the internet. That being said, the Texas primary elections are on March 6th and Lamar Smith is a favorite by an unknown but historically wide margin.

I'm suggesting that we spend all of February compiling our resources and focus on blasting Mr. Smith with as much bad press as we can from February 27th up until the primary. If we've learned anything, the internet can be incredibly effective, but our memory is short-term and we get bored very quickly. I'd like to try to get other sites on board for Hell Week and spread press as far as we can. Lets get a spotlight on the 21st district of Texas in any way we can and build up our attacks as the week goes on.

To combat this, it's going to take an all-out blitz on his campaign to expose his actual motivations. We need to show his constituency that Mr. Smith isn't concerned with the best interests of his people and holds a much larger priority towards his own motivations and those of his financial backers. I welcome any key facts or points of interest that pertain to Smith's tenure as the 21st's congressional rep.

Its clear that the district he represents is very conservative and if we work the angle of congress massively overstepping their boundaries, while infringing on the free internet, we can do this. He's blatantly misleading his constituency and the rest of the nation by adapting bills that evoke kneejerk reactions with their over-the-top titles while enacting much different legislature in its text. Lamar Smith is not a model Texan by any right. He is the definition of big government.

I'd like to suggest we begin building our ground forces. This is our target. With a population of just over 650,000 and heavy conservative leanings, our work isn't exactly cut out for us. We need people on the ground. There are a number of people in the Sheriff Mack AMA that stated they live within the district and I'd like to do some heavy searching through reddit to implore those in his region to assist us with ground work. We need a presence of informed, level-headed citizens to get the word out with the tools we produce. Pushing our message at local universities is a great idea but we need people to visit community centers. Get the elderly community involved and show them that the youth are interested in the future of this country too. Commercials and billboards are nice, but they're extremely expensive and very passive forms of media.

I'd like to suggest we use this thread to compile our facts and media. We need people willing to donate time at polling locations to answer questions. We need District 21 to understand why Smith needs to leave. While this is being done, we need to create a buzz across the web. Crowdsource videos, infographics, memes, photoshops, any media that gets people interested. Viral media can spread a message very quickly. We have money but we could use more. The best infographics can be printed out and used to flood his district.

I'd like to suggest we begin rounding up support via reddit and our website within the next week to raise funds for our push to oust Lamar Smith. $4000 isn't going to go very far so we have to be smart about how we spend. Unless we have more money, television commercials just aren't feasible.

I'm open to any ideas anyone else can come up with but if we don't get the ball in the air within the next week, we might as well just pick another target to start with. What we're attempting isn't going be easy and has a high possibility of failure, but we've shown that we can be very powerful if we work together to focus on a common goal. If we're doing this, the time to act is now.

Test PAC is about $700 away from hitting our goal of $3,844 to put up an anti-Lamar Smith billboard in San Antonio. If we can raise the $700 needed, we will match it with $800 from our general fund to hit $4,500, and upgrade to the best located billboard available.

Here is the donation page, if you’d like to contribute:

https://secure.piryx.com/donate/EKph3wRp/Test-PAC-Please-Ignore/lamar-smith

If you can’t contribute, you can still help by posting that link to your facebook and twitter.

Also, just to note, the donation meter at the top is about $500 short, as when the fundraiser began, there was some confusion on where to make the donation to, and about $500 was deposited into our general fund.

We are now in the home stretch of this effort – let’s make it happen!

Update: Less than $350 away!!!

Update 2: We are less than $200 away!

Update 3: We are about $100 away!

$50 away!!!

I may not be on here all the time, but you can reach me anytime at [email protected], or email me, and I'll give you my number.

There were a number of times when I wished I could communicate with the PAC, and I believe future candidates will feel the same way, but having been a candidate now and experienced from that perspective what a candidate needs, I think I can help the PAC be even more effective in future races.

Yes, we lost the election, but please don't be discouraged. We are just getting started at making our voices heard, and targeting Smith was a bold and lofty goal, but it was also a great way to get some national attention. We are just beginning.

Thank you to everyone who invested your time and money to helping us hold Smith accountable. I especially appreciated the moral support during a very challenging race.

Now that the storm has passed, let's have an earnest discussion about the billboard.

My biggest fear was that the decision, discussion, and voting of our members would be thrown to the wayside because a group of individuals who are neither members nor participants voiced their opinions then left. We are here to work on behalf of you and exclusively you.

To the new members we just recruited, welcome! This is where you have the chance to voice your ideas. We were put into an unfortunate situation and made due with what we could come up with, and I am still proud of the concept and what we as a group have accomplished. But and now is the time for us to step back and let discussion of our members take its course. Let's start talking!

First, a couple of things:

1.) Disclaimer must say "Paid for by Test PAC. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee."

2.) The billboard cannot be offensive, "negative", or factually ambiguous or incorrect. We still can definitely try and submit a questionable design, but this doesn't mean that it is guaranteed to be approved.

3.) The dimensions are 14'x40', so keep that aspect ration in mind.

4.) The design needs to include unseatlamar.com prominently.

You can offer critiques and improvements of the current one or submit your own. As always, please be respectful and constructive in your criticism as well.

Let's get the ideas flowing!

EDIT: Spelling

The Democratic primary has been called for Candace Duval. From her issues page:

Candace also believes that it is vital to defend the privacy and civil liberties of individuals online. She strongly opposes legislation authored and supported by Rep. Lamar Smith such as SOPA, CISPA, and HB 1981 which seek to infringe on the civil liberties of law abiding Americans.

Test PAC discourages any actions deemed inappropriate or unfair by the Reddit community. Organized upvoting is a tactic that will not be utilized by Test PAC. Thanks!

Jeromie Whalen, Test PAC Chairman

Bought and sold corrupt lakey Lamar Smith won the TX 21 Republican primary.

Now may be a time people look around and think "we lost".

I say No.

Lamar has not yet been elected back to Washington. I don't care how we do it, who we have to fund, how much obnoxious noise we have to make. This issue is far larger than TX 21st district, far larger than the US, interconnected human communication is larger than any other technology system we have.

Lamar Smith is a threat to the Internet we all use, and the norms and freedoms we've come to expect online. He needs to be voted out, if for no other reason than to make a statement that corrupt politicians will not win in the US if they fuck with the Internet.

I didn't give money to testpac until now, and I'm regretting that.

If outsting Lamar Smith is still a priority for TestPAC, I'll give $100/month until November. I will use my name, my voice and all the spare time I have to make sure this one corrupted dirtbag is voted out.

Thanks everyone! You did it! Our billboard is financed, and we are one step closer to putting up a billboard in Texas' 21st district. But we need your help in drafting the final design! You can view the first drafts of designs here and tell us what you think below. Or, if you don't like any of them, you can use the guidelines below to create and post your own!

• The billboard dimensions are 14' by 40'. You can get the Photoshop template here.. If you have a concept that you would like us to possibly elaborate on but can't meet these requirement, send an email to us at [email protected] and we may be able to format it for you.

• All images used must have the proper permissions for use. Simply using creative commons pictures is not enough. Explicit permission by the owner of the image is needed.

• The billboard should be focused on Lamar Smith's campaign against online liberty. This was the primary concern that Test PAC members wanted addressed, and it is what we are focused on. Smith's stance on immigration, abortion, welfare, etc. may be justifiable, but we have been charged with focusing on this particular issue.

• The design must include #unseatlamar and www.unseatlamar.com.

• Test PAC reserves the right to make changes to the final product. This doesn't mean that we will change it drastically by any means. Minor formatting tweaks, changes in grammar/URLs, and possible image replacements if the correct permissions are needed.