It's a Candidate Calling. Again

Washington Post ^ | 11/7/06 | Charles Babington and Alec MacGillis

[steve-b]

This year's heavy volume of automated political phone calls has infuriated countless voters and triggered sharp complaints from Democrats, who say the Republican Party has crossed the line in bombarding households with recorded attacks on candidates in tight House races nationwide....

An Ohio woman, who did not leave her name, called The Washington Post in tears yesterday, saying she could not keep her phone line open to hospice workers caring for her terminally ill mother because of nonstop political robo-calls.

Pamela Lorenz, a retired nurse in Roseville, Calif., called her own experience "harassment as far as I'm concerned" and said, "If I were voting right now, the opponent who's doing this, he'd be off my list for throwing that much trash."

Hour after hour and day after day for two weeks, Lorenz's home has received the same NRCC recorded message attacking Charlie Brown, the Democrat who is challenging Rep. John T. Doolittle (R) in a hard-fought battle in northeastern California....

[A CA Guy]

Thanks, that information is a pisser.

[Asclepius]

An Ohio woman, who did not leave her name, called The Washington Post in tears yesterday, saying she could not keep her phone line open to hospice workers caring for her terminally ill mother because of nonstop political robo-calls.

She did not leave her name. What a shock.

[Krodg]

I've had calls from the Republicans, but I've had twice as many from the Dems.

[A CA Guy]

That is going to drive people nuts.

[dljordan]

"Nobody has a right to complain about their house getting called unless they are on the "do not call list".

I'm on the state and Federal do no call lists and I've been inundated. I don't think they apply to political and charity calls.

[Asclepius]

I AM ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST AND STILL GO OVER A DOZEN OF THESE CALLS LAST WEEKEND!!!!!! How the #$%(&%(&^)!@ do I get off theist (*&$%@! list!!!!

Dude. Your caps lock key got stuck. And then your keyboard turned all sideways. I have a suggestion: callerID.

[A Citizen Reporter]

I meant to add, that being the political animal that I am, I don't really mind the calls. And in fact, this year, all the robo calls were contained within the last two days, (which I really prefer than having them stretched over a week, as before.)

However, listening to other people this morning, I was surprised by how much they hated the calls.

[EagleClaw]

It does, and I believe it also exempts calls from non-profits so we still also get those fundraising calls.

I have been getting these calls consistently for the last week, from both sides but more from the R side- -GOTV effort I am sure. Last night was especially bad - I can empathasize with the woman in the article - seemed like we got a call every 5 minutes until after 9 p.m.

I also have a peeve with these calls - the speakers are often (but not always) almost monotone, and it also seems that the calls must be modified to eliminate the dead space between sentences to shorten the call duration. They make the already machine-generated calls sound even more machine-like. Personally, I question how effective they are.

On the other hand, I was able to tell a friend the other day that I had gotten calls from Newt, George Bush, and John McCain, all in the same day!

[Doomonyou]

I had a call from Clint Eastwood last night urging me to vote for some right wing republican wacko in California. (I did this morning, of course.)

[A CA Guy]

That is what I am hearing. That seems horrible to me, the private sector is banned, but the political hacks get special privilege? That is total cr@p IMO.

[A CA Guy]

If it is allowed, I can see how they would use it.

Helps a lot if calls are limited to between 9:15am stopped at 11:45am-12:45pm and then go till no later than 7pm.

My friend (a doc) gets great results with those times.

He also does not use the calling machine on weekends.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Three calls from Joe Piscopo and one from ex-governor Kean - sheeeeesh.....

[ncpatriot]

I thought NC Rep Foxx drew up a bill (adding political campaigns to the do not call list) which was passed by Congress two yrs ago. At least that was a campaign promise. Wonder what happened? She's GOP too!

[kAcknor]

I don't think they apply to political and charity calls.

The lists do not block these two categories of calls.

It's the last day. We can deal with it because it's working to get our vote out. The small inconvenience is worth it IMO, and I've gotten at least 10 calls today myself. If it's a recording, I simply hang up, if a person, I thank them to their efforts and ask them not to waste time with me, it's no use preaching to the choir today, call somebody who might not be sure yet.

Tomorrow we can be glad it's over.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Take it back - just had one from President George W. Bush - hooray....

[steve-b]

Tomorrow we can be glad it's over start leaning on politicians to close the loopholes in the Do Not Call list.

[untrained skeptic]

I’ve got about a metric ton of campaign flyers from the GOP, but not one piece of propaganda from the Dims. I just assumed that the GOP sent stuff to GOP folks, and the Dims sent stuff to the Dims. Are folks who aren't registered getting stuff from both parties?

I'm a registered Republican in Ohio and I've gotten at least 4 times as much junk in the mail from Democrats than from Republicans.

I've received more mail encouraging me to vote for Sherrod Brown than I have credit card applications.

[blinachka]

I have gotten about 5,000 flyers from both sides (some especially NASTY ones put out by the DNC and the Gillebrand campaign). I have recieved robo-calls from both sides. I hang up on the Dem ones and listen to the Republican ones (even if it IS a recording I can't bring myself to hang up on President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Rudy Guliani or Congressman Sweeney!).

I have also recieved about 500 calls from a live person for the Gillebrand campaign. I generally try to keep them on the phone for as long as I can stand it and then finally tell them I'm voting for Sweeney! ;) (Which I did earlier today...and I will be praying the rest of the day that he defeats that inexperienced, liberal, toe-the Nancy Peloisi-line democrat running against him).

[atomic conspiracy]

I got a Spanish language GOTV call from the local Donks yesterday, with a live person for a change. I speak fluent Spanish but I told him that I prefer to speak English on my own phone. He apologized, told me that he did not speak enough English to do that, and hung up. (my last name is of Iberian Jewish origin and often shows up on automated searches for "Hispanic surnames")

[Anti-MSM]