Monday, November 06, 2006

The GOP's dirty telephone trick

We used to joke about doing a 3 a.m. get-out-the-vote phone bank, saying we were calling from the Republican Party to remind you that the polls opened in four hours.

But the GOP is actually using a similar tactic, with repeat robo-calls irritating voters, who think the calls are coming from the Dems.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has been following it. Here's one of his posts that explains what's going on.

Dems are blaming Mr. Turnout, Karl Rove. From Democrats.com:
The calls are made to Democrats and swing voters at all times of day or night to make them angry. And they pretend to be from the Democrat ("Hello, I'm calling with information about Lois Murphy"). If you hang up, they call back 7-8 times, and each time you hear the Democrat's name, to get you angry at him or her. If you stay on, you get to hear a scathing attack on the Democrat.
UPDATE: Wisconsin's 8th CD is getting the calls, too, according to Steve Kagen's campaign. WisPolitics, in its PM Report to subscribers, says Stephanie Lundberg of Kagen's campaign says the autocalls start with “Hello, I’m calling with information about Steve Kagen.” She says she’s heard multiple complaints from residents receiving the call who hung up but were subsequently re-contacted multiple times. The calls then go on to trash Kagen as a liberal. Only if you listen to the end, without hanging up, do you hear that the call was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

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