Early I posted about apparent anonymous robocalls in the Austin City Council Place 3 race between Jennifer Kim and Randi Shade (oh, and Ken Weiss).
Well, it appears they may not so anonymous after all and indeed are from the Jennifer Kim campaign.
The number used to call has been previously identified as one used for Kim autocalls.
The issue now- is "Lisa" enough of a disclaimer for the Kim campaign to not be breaking the law? (Ironic given yesterday's 'ethics' hullabaloo?) Jeff Crosby points this out in the comments on the prior post.
It's against state law (Texas PUC Regulations). Robo calls that fail to properly identify the caller within the first 30 seconds of the call are illegal.
And for those not convinced this is from the Kim campaign, two scans of the latest attack mail from her campaign are below the fold. The messaging is the same.
Robocalls are a typical part of municipal election here in Austin. Typically they are of the endorsement variety (Hi, this is XYZ of Save Our Springs with an important message...) or directly from the candidate (Hi, this is Mayor Wynn inviting you to...). They are a cheap (though increasingly irritating) way for campaigns to get a message out to voters or layer on top of a GOTV operation for anywhere for about a nickel or dime a call.
But from time to time, you have negative attack or suppression calls which tend to be the ones that drive people to hate all robocalls in general. In the Place 3 race, such a call appears to have been released.
"Why is Randi Shade trying to break the bank? Hi, this is your neighbor Lisa, calling to let you know City Council candidate Randi Shade has made budget promises that could mean cuts in city services and higher taxes for you. In seeking the endorsement of police and firefighters, Shade agreed to increase funding for management positions without having seen a budget, which is now in the red. With the highest-paid public safety workers in the state, can we afford Randi Shade's promises? It's not different, and it's not Austin."
Notwithstanding that 1) I don't have a neighbor Lisa; and 2) one councilmember can't do anything alone (and thus the crux of the call is rendered sadly inert)- I suppose "different" and "Austin" are truly exemplified by anonymous attack ads, right, Jennifer Kim?
Now, there is nothing in the call that identifies this call as being from the Kim campaign specifically. I contacted the Shade campaign and they said that supporters of their from across the city had received the call- which if anything, means that Lisa lives in a lot of people's neighborhoods...
(The Dallas Mayoral runoff is only days away. We hope that you'll support Democrat Ed Oakley. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Well, I've been wondering when the religious right assault would kick in. And it finally did today. The Dallas mayoral run-off between Ed Oakley and Tom Leppert is next Saturday, June 16. Early voting started June 4th.
Over the past week, and in Leppert's television ads, his campaign has been complaining about the Oakley campaign's "negative" ads, the recent endorsement of Oakley by the Dallas County Democrats (making the race appear to be overly-partisan according to some) and the stories about Oakley's sexual orientation seem to be getting a fair share of the attention in the press. Here and here. And now this. The robocalls. If you're not sure what that is, this overview from Alternet should help.
But back to the Dallas Robocalls...*Update*~ Audio here.
