TPM reporting 'harassment' robocalls framed to sound like they are dem

[salin]

but if one listens to the message it is anti dem candidate... if one doesn't listen to it (hang up) it calls back repeatedly leaving the caller to assume the dem candidate is behind harrassing phone promoting.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010818.php

anyone hearing about this?

Write LTTE - immediately. If it is happening in your area... call in to local news (tv radio) make sure the SCAM behind these types of calls is recognized and discussed publically BEFORE the election.

[Mabus]

1. Yep, it is happening in Kansas to Nancy Boyda

from Nancy's (real) campaign

Hello Nancy's friends,

You have probably been getting angry complaints from people who are being flooded with automated phone calls that seem to come from the Boyda campaign. You need to know that Nancy is not robocalling anyone, and she has no one calling on her behalf. WE ARE NOT BEHIND THE CALLS!

They are illegal. FCC rules say all prerecorded messages must "at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call." During or after the message, they must give the telephone number of the caller.

They are hurting all of the hard work that Nancy and all of you have put into this campaign. It appears that they are part of a much larger strategy coming from Washington as outlined in the AP article below.

Please forward this message to as many of your contacts as you can, and ask them to let their friends and neighbors know about this underhanded campaign dirty trick. Make copies of the article to hand out to skeptics.

We do not KNOW who is behind this, but after reading the article, we can make a very good guess. DO NOT blame Jim Ryun; we cannot say that he knows or condones this. But we CAN say that some group is trying to steal the election from Nancy, and they have to be exposed.

THANKS FOR HELPING FIGHT THIS SLIME!!

Jan Garton
Nancy Boyda for Congress
785-234-2251

btw, Bush is here in Kansas this afternoon and the protesters are lining up.

on edit: Bush is here to campaign for Boyda's opponent, Jim Ryun.

[salin]

3. get this into the media... on the evening news .... the public has

to get the word. It isn't (yet) happening here in Indiana (where we have three hot races) - so I don't know that trying to push it into the news media would do much good. I hope that Boyda's people can create enough ruckus to get some local media coverage. Especially the local radio news tapes where they will play the same newsreel tape every 30 minutes or so for a couple of hours or longer.

[Mabus]

6. The word is out and Nancy's people are on it

I've already called the local paper and talked to a reporter. They are getting a lot of phone calls about this travesty. I also passed the word onto a reporter friend of mine who works in radio. He's on too.

Also, Nancy had a rally today in Topeka with hundreds of supporters in attendance (per phone call with a few there) and the media. She is getting out the word herself. Since Nancy is running a good old-fashioned grassroots campaign (as evidenced by the rapid response to this), the word is getting out very quickly. I've already got the message about bogus calls from different sources both via the internet and phone calls.

Thanks for making sure I'm doing my part. :hi:

[salin]

9. YEA! Makes me want to do the Dean- Iowa YEAARGH

to hear of such quick and effective responses. IF the voters are aware of the tactic before the election... than there is no way to believe it could do anything but hurt the republican candidates!

Thanks for the followup and keep up the great work! :hi:

[Mabus]

13. Well, Dean did kick off the 50 state strategy here in Kansas

and I was there when he did it!

The even better news is that last time around the vote here in Lawrence was about 50-50 for the Ryun/Boyda match-up. Local political analysts are saying that if Nan can break through here in Lawrence (and it appears she has) then she will win. Forty percent of the votes in Kansas come in the I-70 corridor between KCK and Topeka. Lawrence is in the middle of that area and half of Lawrence is in Boyda's district. Moreover, she's made in-roads in some very red areas of the state. I hooked her campaign up with my brother's friend who owns a store in Jefferson County earlier this year. Last time I ran campaign supplies up there there were Boyda signs in the rural farm fields of Kansas. That, my friends, is a surprising sight since the rural areas tend to vote Republican.

There are Boyda signs everywhere on the west side of town. Hell, there are Boyda signs on my side of town (I've got one) and I live in the 3rd CD. In contrast, most of the Ryun signs I've seen are on vacant lots. Ryun's signs are blue! And to see one along a street surrounded by yards of Boyda's red, white and blue "Had enough? Nothing will change until we change Congress" signs, is a remarkable sight.

Doing my part to turn Kansas blue!

[sandnsea]

5. Do not blame Jim Ryun?

Incredible. Has the campaign called his campaign manager and asked that Jim Ryun stand up against these calls?? The second he refuses to make a very public statement against them is the second the campaign needs to blame Jim Ryun. Aargh. This is the EXACT change we're trying to make, stop the slimy politics coming from these right wing extremists.

Now where exactly is she running so we can write some outraged, but mannerly, LTTE's and give her some back-up.

[salin]

8. in several of these reports... the NRCC seems directly implicated...

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001912.php

Isn't that Tom Reynolds group? (isn't he the congressional chair for getting other GOP congressfolks elected?)

Not saying that Ryun shouldn't be knocked for the reason you state... but am saying that the whole operation needs to be linked back to the GOP overall... esp the autoredial part. Then - the story should be pushed locally in NY in Reynolds district... he has bounced back... but the 'is there nothing too low to support in order to win GOP seats...' theme really ought to be reignited in his district.

[Mabus]

11. Nancy is running a positive campaign

I was just posting on the Kansas forum about this and noted that Nancy's ads all have people from all over Kansas - the veterans, farmers, the elderly, the young, you name it they are in Nancy's ads talking about change. In contrast, Ryun has an ad with his daughter whining about people lying about her daddy. :boo frigging hoo: The "kid" is in her 20's and isn't very convincing. My brother saw the ad and started laughing out loud. It boils down to this, Ryun is apparently having trouble getting ordinary Kansans to speak out for him.


Here's a link to Nancy's campaign website with link to the newspaper outlets in her district. She's running for the 2nd Congressional District in Kansas. http://www.nancyforcongress.com/letters.php

[sandnsea]

19. Okay

Here's an email I came up with - let me know if it's okay for Nancy's area. I'll just email it without saying where I live. I'll also look for any media links before I send it, or just link to TPM if there aren't any yet.



I am disheartened by the scandalous tactics in this year’s election. I have seen some pretty shocking things across our great country, from harassing the family of a campaign worker in Massachusetts to concocting stories about Mr. Webb’s novel to actually saying there’s “lying going on” from Nancy Boyda. It has been a shameless display of dirty politics and I understand it is continuing with a telephone scheme that makes people believe Democratic candidates are harassing anybody who hangs up on them.

It works like this. A robo-call is generated that sounds like it comes from the Democratic candidate in various Congressional Districts. The caller only finds out it’s an attack on the Democrat if they listen to the call all the way through. If they hang up, the machinery launches a barrage of calls in hopes of convincing them that Democrats are vindictive and attack anybody who is against them.

I hope these tactics will be exposed before election day because people should vote on the issues, not these sleazy, and childish, partisan dirty tricks.

[Mabus]

24. Sounds good,

every little bit helps. fwiw, Nancy's district has several colleges in it from Kansas University to Emporia State so the local papers get a lot of mail from people who have lived here and keep up with what's going on.

Sorry I took so long to reply. I've been in Topeka where Bush was stumping for Nan's opponent and just got back.

[sandnsea]

28. Thank you

I'll send it out in the morning, along with an additional note about the robo-calls telling African-American voters in Tennessee that they don't need to vote for Ford if they already did in August. Just another example of the dirty tactics used.

So did you protest Bush?? Got pics?

[Mabus]

30. Sure do

Bush was supposed to speak at 6:20 this evening. It was getting dark by the time we got to the venue but I tried my best. I posted them on a thread that proud2Blib started. She was there, so was kiteinthewind along with approximately 100 other fine Kansans who turned out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2586813&mesg_id=2586860

[Mabus]

32. You'll love this

I saw a new Boyda commercial this morning. She confronts the lies directly. She's standing alone with a tan background that, upon closer inspection, is actually the Constitution (small versions of it over and over again). She says something along the lines of "there have been a lot of lies about me and my positions," and then she lists some of them and rebuts them. She continues, "I'm Nancy Boyda and I approve this message because the lies have to stop because Kansans deserve the truth." She then goes on to say "We have put together three newsletters that explain my positions, so you know where I stand. We've included these newsletters in local papers. If you haven't seen one please call us." This is great because she confronts the lies directly and sets the record straight (at least as much as she can in 30 seconds).

The part about calling her is even better because one of the biggest compliants is that Ryun isn't responsive to his constituents. He never returns calls and is rarely available. She's knocking this one out of the ball park.

[blm]

2. Calling this into local TV stations is CRUCIAL.

Thanks for the heads up, salin. I will call newsroom immediately.

[salin]

4. don't forget local network radio

station affiliates of cbs, for example, will create a news/reel type recording that the station will play on the hour (or on the half hours depending on the station) over and over again. Getting an item like this - if it is happening locally - onto the airwaves will ensure that a lot of people will hear it... then tomorrow (work) when someone complains about receiving the call - there are folks who have heard about it and respond per the newsclip.

[karlrschneider]

7. We've been getting dozens of odd calls the last few days. Caller ID

says "unknown caller", we don't pick up so the answering machine will catch them but they ring only 3 times (machine answers on the 4th) and they're almost exactly 30 minutes apart. I don't get it...
:wtf:

[Eric J in MN]

14. Call the phone company and ask them if they

...can tell you where the calls are coming from.

[karlrschneider]

17. I tried but the department that handles that isn't open on Sunday.

:eyes:

[Eric J in MN]

18. Let us know what happens when you ask tomorrow. NT

NT

[Mabus]

15. Is a number showing up?

If so, go to http://whocalled.us and see if it is a known telemarketer. I found out that one of the numbers calling me was a push poller via the website.

edit: I posted about about the push poller in the Kansas forum (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=153&topic_id=6067&mesg_id=6067). The calls were coming from Oregon and I traced it to Venture Data3. I searched for that company and found out they were responsible for push polls for Santorum (http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-got-push-polled-for-tricky-ricky.html).

[karlrschneider]

16. Nope, no number. Just 'unidentified caller' nothing else

...

[Mabus]

25. Keep whocalled.us in mind

It has been helpful to us.

[sandnsea]

20. IIRC, I got some polls like that

Or push polls. I voted so I don't get this last minute crush. Earlier though, it seems like those 'unknown caller' calls were push polls.

[NightOwwl]

10. Doolittle in California using this technique against Charlie Brown.

What a sleazebucket.

[salin]

12. is the media discussing it?

The more savvy the public - the more it backfires. Esp the 'cute' call back feature that keeps calling a home phone again and again if the listener hangs up before the end of the call.

Calls themselves aren't new or news. The automated harassment part IS new - and newsworthy.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Is that the same district where they're running the "phone sex" ads?

You know, because someone on the guy's staff misdialed the justice department and got a phone sex line that was one number different?

Pathetic.

[mucifer]

22. they are doing it to Tammy Duckworth

[chill_wind]

23. Looking forward to a serious legal investigation.

Kick and recommend.

[Eric J in MN]

26. If any criminal laws were violated, I hope everyone responsible

..receives long prison sentences.

[drm604]

27. K&R

:kick:

[Eric J in MN]

29. Nancy Pelosi should call a big press conference...

...to announce she'll pass a bill to restrict robocalls if she's Speaker.

[FernBell]

31. k&r