Virginia Beach
Those campaign buttons are going the way of hanging chads. Candidates for City Council and School Board have ditched the traditional handouts.
Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson, for instance, is offering red, white and blue emery boards emblazoned with her name. They're useful, and voters seem to keep them around.
"People love them," Wilson said.
She loved the price: about $700 for 6,000 boards.
South Carolina-based runandwin.com has sold about a million emery boards to candidates this year. The company makes electioneering yard signs, sponges and fans, but nail files are top-sellers, said owner Julie Matson.
Virginia Beach School Board incumbent Rita Sweet Bellitto makes her point with peppermint candy.
"I'm the only Sweet on the ballot," Bellitto tells potential voters as she passes out packets of the treats.
Scott Taylor, running for mayor, has taken a cue from Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong foundation, giving potential voters blue wristbands with his name on them.
Other candidates show up at campaign events toting free T-shirts, magnets and bookmarks. In a year when voters will have to sort through 44 names on the Beach ballot, candidates see the swag as a way to stand apart.
"It's all name recognition," Bellitto said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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