Call it Christmas in October. Mailboxes around the Pikes Peak region are overflowing with glossy, colorful mailings.

But these mailings have a different sales pitch than Land’s End or Toys R Us catalogs, appealing more to fear than acquisitiveness.

The aim of these ads is to hook your vote rather than your wallet.

If you’re registered to vote Republican, you’ve probably received mailings from John McCain, Bob Schaffer, Doug Lamborn, your local state legislators and the conservative side of a host of proposed amendments to the state constitution. If you’re a registered Democrat, your mailbox is stuffed with appeals from Barack Obama, Mark Udall and so on.

God help you if you’re an independent voter; you’re getting it from both sides.

Like the television ads blanketing the airwaves, many direct-mail messages are negative.

“John McCain’s solution to rising health care costs? Tax your health care,” reads a mailing from the Colorado Democratic Party. Also from the same source: “8,000 DHL employees are about to lose their jobs thanks to John McCain and his lobbyist campaign manager.”

Some claims are, well, outrageous. Udall, the Democratic candidate for Colorado’s open U.S. Senate seat, is accused of supporting sex discrimination. “Big labor bosses have a history of corruption and sexual discrimination, and Mark Udall supports their radical agenda,” says a mailing from Coloradans for Employee Freedom, an anti-union group.

The Associated Builders and Contractors, a Virginia-based outfit, says Udall “supports exporting our jobs to other states.”

Other claims are misleading. Opponents of a proposed state constitutional amendment increasing the severance tax on oil and gas describe it in a mailing as “a $321 million energy tax hike,” neglecting to mention that the tax would be paid by oil companies, not Joe Taxpayer.

But does it matter?

Most direct mailings wind up in the trash, unread, said Josh Dunn, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

“The presumption is that none of them are very effective,” he said. “A lot of undecided voters probably aren’t going to take the time to sit down and read this glossy mailing that shows up in their mailbox and it’s obviously very partisan.”

“The research shows that the most effective way to get someone out to vote for you is face-to-face contact,” Dunn said, adding that surrogates, not just the candidates, do the trick. “What these direct mailings show is that some of these campaigns have a lot of money,” he said.

Robert Duffy is a political science professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. “Fifty cents of every dollar spent in a campaign is wasted,” he said. “The problem is figuring out which 50 cents.” The fact that so many political groups are sending direct mailings, he added, “seems to suggest that they think it matters.”

Unlike television ads, direct mail can be targeted to specific audiences, said Duffy, who’s participating in a research project on mass mailings and other campaign activity in swing states, which includes Colorado this year. With the increasing sophistication of mailing lists, “you can really fine-tune” the message, he said. “It’s called narrowcasting as opposed to broadcasting.”

Dunn said live phone callers – not the “robocall” variety – also work. But basically, he said, “it’s face-to-face contact, and then everything else.”

Ricardo Morales-Coronado weighed only 1 pound, 3 oz when he was born June 23 at St. Francis Medical Center. When he left the hospital’s NICU Wednesday he weighed in at weighed 5 pounds, 5 oz. Photo by (Carol Lawrence, The Gazette)

Carol Lawrence