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The deceptive robocalls I told you about last week aren’t confined to Illinois.
The calls, paid for by the National Republican Campaign Committee, are running in 53 US House races, according to the Boston Globe.
The calls beging with “Hello, I’m calling with information about [Democratic candidate’s name here].” Lots of voters tend to hang up after the first sentence, but then they get another call right away from the system, leading some to believe that the Democratic candidate is bombarding them with idiotic calls.
You can listen to some examples of the robocalls done against Tammy Duckworth by clicking here.
Not everyone is blaming the innocent Democratic candidates, however.
Joan Sherrill had not decided how to vote in the 8th Congressional race until she received more than a dozen phone calls from Republican David McSweeney.
At that point, the choice was clear.
“I am voting for (Democrat) Melissa Bean,†the Palatine woman said. “The calls are just too much. They’re annoying.â€
Despite all the hooplah on Democratic blogs about the outrageousness of the robocall campaign, as is almost always the case with politics, neither side is completely clean. From Dennis Byrne’s column:
It starts out as a typical poll. “Would you care to answer a few questions about the elections,” the voice on your phone asks. “Whom do you plan to vote for?”
Then it gets weird. As in: “Candidate A beats his wife; does that make you think of him more or less favorably?” Or as my daughter Kati heard when she was called: “Does the fact that Congressman Mark Kirk accepts special-interest money make you think of him more favorably or less favorably?”
So, if you are a supporter of Kirk–the Republican from the north suburban 10th Congressional District who is seeking re-election against Democrat Dan Seals–how are you supposed to answer? Oh, sure, I want my congressman to take special-interest money, so it makes me think more favorably of him.
Which is exactly how Kati, being Kati, answered. Then came four more questions of the same nature, each trying to make Kirk look like he was doing something wrong. And each time, Kati answered that she thinks more favorably of him. She even had the interviewer chuckling. But actually, it wasn’t so funny.
“It’s like Mark Kirk went out and shot 100 people,” she said. “What kind of poll is this anyway?”
The answer is: dirty, low-down and negative.
*** UPDATE *** Pioneer Press has a story up about the robocalls.
Rozanne Ronen, a Barrington resident, got the call — “Hi. I’m calling with information about Melissa Bean …”
Then she got the call again and again and 18 more times, making for a total of about 21 calls since October 24.
“They are very annoying,” Ronen said.
Pat Vockeroth, of Mount Prospect, received the calls too — “Hi. I’m calling with information about Tammy Duckworth …”
“If you only listen to the first sentence, you think they are from the Duckworth campaign,” she said.
But the calls aren’t paid for by Bean, Duckworth or even the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, they are paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The media really needs to do something more on this. As other bloggers have noted, this is obviously an attempt at vote suppression.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 9:22 am
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We are smarter than this. Any attempt to pull these tricks will backfire.
I suspect both parties when stories like this blow around. I definately suspect any media that tries to pin it on one of them.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 9:38 am
This is nothing new. I believe this Push Polling was a GOP dirty trick from at least the ‘88 Presidential. Leave it to Byrne to make it look like Seals is some sort of political Mephistopheles.
The more clever robocall is the constantly annoying calls that folks are getting. It’s subtle and under the radar. It also will help supress the vote of indies.
Comment by Jacketpotato Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 10:22 am
And did you notice how blissfully unaware Byrne’s column was?
From the Byrne column: “(Here, I’ll stipulate that both parties probably use such polls.)”
(emph added)
VanillaMan, I challenge you to find 53 Democratic House races that are making such calls. And conservatives like Byrne are griping because Dems are using conservative tactics against conservative candidates. Pot, meet kettle.
One of the most famous push polls was a Republican against a Republican when the Bush 2000 campaign called South Carolina voters asking what they would think of John McCain if they knew he had black babies… (this alluded to his adopted kids, but how is the poll receiver supposed to know they’re adopted).
Bush won the SC primary.
And the immediate call-back thing seems to be an attempt to get around telecom laws which force the caller to disconnect within seconds of the call receiver hanging up (so that the receiver can call 911 if needs be).
Comment by NW burbs Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 10:23 am
I read the Byrne column, and I’m not convinced that the phone calls were “push-polling.” First, if the push is “Kirk takes special interest money,” it’s pretty lame. Second, the ONLY question that Byrne quotes is the special interest question — the rest were, umm, made up.
A legitimate political polling technique is to ask questions testing various negative lines of attack. This technique becomes a push poll when: 1) the entire purpose of the phone call is persuasion, not surveying; and 2) the questions are loaded unfairly.
Maybe this was a push poll, but Byrne didn’t provide enough information to make that judgement.
By the way, some of his other suggestions — like having the sponsor of the survey identified — skew the responses, and would render polls (even more?) meaningless.
I wish Byrne had taken the time to talk to a pollster before writing this column.
Comment by the Other Anonymous Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 10:28 am
Byrne turned over a rock on the Progressive Travelling All-Stars and really got their collective panties in a twist - ‘Don’t You People Care About Saving This Country???!!!’
The idea, I thought - dummy me - was to win an election.
The respnse from the progresives was - ‘Well, what about all the Machine Teams?’ They are part of the Regular Cook County Democratic Organization - the grassroots as it were, Boys and Girls.
Comment by Pat Hickey Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 11:03 am
I got a call from Da Coach, Mike Ditker(a) and Da Mayor, Rudi Giulliani telling me how great McSweeney is.
Comment by Wumpus Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 12:15 pm
So you’re saying there are really people whose lives are so shallow and meaningless that they actually listen to these calls rather than hanging up immediately?
Comment by Dark Knight Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 12:17 pm
Dark Knight,
If you read the links Rich provided, the points to the Republican negative robo-calls are that the computer calls you back immediately several times even if (especially if) you hang up immediately.
Since people hear “I’d like to tell you some information about (Democratic Candidate)” they assume it’s the Democrats’ campaign that is doing the annoying calls, rather than the Republicans (which you would only hear if you listened to the entire few minutes’ worth of drivel and negativity.
Comment by NW burbs Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 12:51 pm
The Byrne column is a joke and a pathetic attempt to GOTV for the republicans in IL-10. First off, the statement that Kirk takes special interest money is true and accurate; he does. Byrne didn’t mention any of the other questions, which could also be absolutely true.
Secondly, I received a call in June and there were similar questions about both candidates in the IL-10 race, not just one candidate. Byrne doesn’t give out any more details about the questions or purpose of the call.
Byrne decided to smear an emerging campaign one day before the election with the slimmest of information and tons of innuendo.
He’s also trying to avoid the bigger discussion about the annoying, harrassing robo-calls made by Roskam and the GOP but designed to look like they came from Duckworth.
Comment by skb Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 12:55 pm
Dennis Byrne has absolutely no credibility. The guy is a flak for the extreme right wing and to call him a “journalist” is really a stretch. He has made a career out of twisting the truth like a pretzel.
Comment by Will County Wiseguy Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 2:38 pm
Ha ha ha ha ha!!! Excuse me, Mr Seals, but when your top contributor is Kirkland and Ellis, I don’t think you have any room to talk about special interests…
Comment by Lovie's Leather Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 3:32 pm
Rich, why don’t you look into Dennis Byrne’s claim that he contacted Illinois Dem Network, but the organization didn’t respond?
According to the Leo, the Illinois Dem Network organizer, Byrne never called or sent an email.
So, you might want to factor a couple things into Byrne’s claim that all sides are practicing dirty equally.
1. Dennis Byrne is a partisan hack who never said much of anything thoughtful or original.
2. Byrne has apparently taken to lying to advocate for his Right Wing GOP views.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 3:54 pm
Hey, Carl he sure gave the old progressive cage a rattle and the critters in it are hopping mad. Seems to that the man might be on to something there. Of course as a Regular Democrat ( paid up membership to old Doc Dean and all) standing on the visitors side of that cage, it is amusing. What is afoot? Lands sakes.
Comment by Pat Hickey Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 4:05 pm
Rich,
I’ll back Carl up on that.
Remember when your QOTD was on what the news media could do to improve their election coverage?
…This issue is a case in point. (Unfortunately, the Republican dirty tricks bag is much, much worse in Virginia with the Webb-Allen Senate race.)
Comment by NW burbs Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 4:24 pm
The Byrne column came up at the Dan Seals HQ (where I have been actively volunteering for weeks now) … the campaign staff was wondering a) if it really exists and is not a figment of Byrne’s overactive imagination; if not, then b)who commissioned it. I guess when both parties have to disclose their final campaign expenditures we will see who the real push-poller was.
If a Seals supporter had commissioned that poll, the caller would have been told to make much more damning statements about Kirk than that he takes special-interest money. Kirk’s devotion to special-interest money is worth noting, but the Seals campaign tends to focus on much more volatile subjects … Kirk’s votes FOR Bush’s Iraq policy, FOR Bush’s budgets, AGAINST veterans’ benefits … and then of course there’s the infamous Caryn Garber email … yes, the Seals campaign has a lot more to work with than “special interest money”!!
Comment by 10th Dem Monday, Nov 6, 06 @ 7:38 pm
[…] The NRCC and/or other allied groups like a 527 or PAC may toss out a slew of annoying, subversive and downright misleading robocalls which seem designed mostly to sour voters and turn them off from the process rather than actually inform anyone of anything substantive […]
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[…] Hiram Wurf notes the subversive conservative mailer is actually a switcheroo: it appears to be an endorsement of Col. Morgenthaler but ticks off a bunch of negative points. Gee, sounds like those nasty, harassing phone calls that got dumped into the 6th throughout the last campaign. On top of that, Arch notes that the group the card is attributed to (”Patriotic Democrats of DuPage”) appears to be illegal since no such group is listed in FEC filings even as the mailer appears to advocate for a Federal candidate. (PS: Nice typos in the text, ya maroons.) […]
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