One of the issues that Don Manzullo attacked his one-term Democratic Party opponent on in 1992 was spending taxpayer dollars to promote himself.

Congressmen are low profile folks in huge metropolitan areas. They don’t get their names in the paper much or on TV unless they are leaders like Denny Hastert was and Rahm Emmanuel is.

So, most congressmen take advantage of the incumbent protection program known as “franking.”

Associated Press’ former Springfield buy, Dennis Conrad did the research on who did how much franking this year for a Sunday article.

Tucked away in the bottom is this paragraph:

Rockford GOP Rep. Donald Manzullo has never spent money on mass mailings during a 14-yea congressional career. He has returned more than $1.1 million in unused office allowances, spokesman Rich Carter said.

And in the Sun-Times version, Manzullo $1.1 million even rated a sub-headline, as you can see here.

“(Cook County U.S. Rep. Daniel) Lipinski acknowledged that some mailings are difficult to differentiate from advertising, and said he understands how some people may view them as propaganda,” the article said.

Peoria’s Republican Ray LaHood, whose district is dominated by Peoria media, making him well-known, told AP that he considers the mass mailings “self-promotion.”

Self-obvious, it would seem to me.