Burnt Orange Report: - robocalls

Jennifer Kim Campaign Behind Anonymous Robocalls in Place 3 Race

Karl-Thomas Musselman — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:29:35 GMT

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.

Anonymous Robocalls Appear in Place 3 Race

Karl-Thomas Musselman — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:10:30 GMT

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.

From a local blogger...

"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...

This seems to conflict with what was quoted in the Austin American Statesman's endorsement of Shade.

Shade respects the work of police, firefighters and EMS workers and won endorsements from their unions without pandering to them.

Heritage Alliance PAC Launches Robocalls in Dallas

Elsbeth — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 04:21:09 GMT

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.

According to Carolyn Barta on the Dallas Blog, here's the essence of the robocall:

"Crime, education and homosexuality are the three hot issues in the mayor's race."
The caller quotes The Dallas Morning News as saying Oakley would be the first openly gay mayor in the city. Then the caller urges support for Tom Leppert, noting that he is a Christian, married and the father of three children.
As for crime and education, the other two "hot issues," the female caller says that crime is eight times higher in Oakley's council district than in the rest of the city and that his district has one of the highest dropout rates. The caller identifies Heritage Alliance PAC as payer of the call and directs the receiver to the PAC's Web site for more info, www.txvote.com. [emphasis added.]

The Texas Freedom Network's 2007 Report: State of the Religious Right provides an excellent summary of the Heritage Alliance PAC on Page 43. So, who and/or what are they anyway?

There isn't any contact information on the Heritage Alliance Web site, but their 2004 Form 990 is publicly available on Guidestar.com and provides more transparency about this group.

Richard Ford (President of the Heritage Alliance PAC) appears to be a lobbyist and to have contributed $1,000 to the Texas Republican Congressional Committee AKA Victory 2000 in 2000 and $1,000 to the Bush for President, Inc. Committee in 1999 (Scroll down this list to see his contributions.)

J Keet Lewis (Director of the Heritage Alliance PAC) has a bio on thevanguard.org which lists him as an advisor:

Keet Lewis is a serial entrepreneur, consultant, speaker and trainer. He is Chairman of Lewis Group International, as well as several other diversified corporations.
He has been involved in politics since the Goldwater for President campaign...is a past chairman of the Deacon Ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church, has served on the Southern Baptists of Texas Building Committee, and in 2003-2004 was Chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Committee on Nominations.[emphasis added]

And Tom Miller (Director of the Heritage Alliance PAC) works for Trinity Consultants and is apparently manager of the Irvine, California location according to their Web site. (The address on the 990 shows his address to be the Dallas location).

All of these men appear to be outstanding human beings. So, why are they associated with an organization that promotes hatred and bigotry? And why are they calling me? Or at least trying to since I didn't answer the phone and only saw their organization's name on my Caller ID.

Oh, and Leppert is denying that he had anything to do with the calls. There's a statement right there on the front page of his Web site. It's still another week before the votes are counted...

*Update* ~ I came across this 2005 article written by Robert Wilonsky for the Dallas Observer. The Heritage Alliance PAC is the offshoot of FreePAC. What a sordid story...if you haven't read it, there's a lot there.