NYT : Repeat Calls Spur a Debate Over Tactics

Repeat Calls Spur a Debate Over Tactics

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and CARL HULSE | November 7, 2006

Karyn Hollis, an English professor at Villanova University outside Philadelphia, said the same computerized calls had been ringing her telephone as often as five times a day for more than a week.

They all start with a simple, if somewhat ambiguous, statement: “Hello, I’m calling with information about Lois Murphy,” a Pennsylvania Democrat who is the challenger in one of the hottest House races. That opening sounds “kind of positive in tone,” Ms. Hollis said. But the message quickly turns negative, blasting Ms. Murphy’s political views. After she hangs up, the phone rings again later with the same message. And again. And again.

The calls are part of a telephone blitz that the Republican Party has unleashed in several dozen races that are likely to determine control of the House in Tuesday’s elections. And the repeat calls to the same homes have set off a new furor over campaign tactics, with the Democrats claiming the calls violate federal communications rules and are tantamount to harassment.

Ms. Murphy and other Democrats say they have been flooded with complaints from irritated voters who think that the calls are coming from the candidates themselves. Many of the voters had hung up before the message was over, and never heard that it was produced by the Republican Party.

Democratic leaders contend that the messages violate federal rules that require groups making automated calls to identify themselves at the outset. And the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has financed the calls, agreed on Sunday to quit making some of them in New Hampshire, where a state law limits who can receive computerized phone messages.

Ed Patru, a committee spokesman, said the phone campaign complied with federal law and was “drawing contrasts” between the candidates. “There’s no statutory requirement that our phone calls be complimentary to Democrats,” Mr. Patru added.

Federal filings indicate that the committee has spent about $2 million on phone calls in the last week.

But Democratic officials say they fear the saturation calling is just a tactic to irritate voters and discourage them from going to the polls.

“Make no mistake about it,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat who is leading his party’s effort to retake the House. “This is a dirty trick, one they have pulled before, one they have gotten caught on, and they are still doing it.”

Mr. Emanuel was referring to past fights over last-minute phone campaigns, particularly in New Hampshire, where three Republican officials were convicted of campaign violations stemming from an effort in 2002 to jam phone lines used by the Democratic Party to get out the vote.

Complaints about the recent Republican calls first surfaced about a week ago in a smattering of states. Rozanne Ronen, who lives in a Chicago suburb, said she had gotten more than 20 of the calls, all relating to the same House race. “To me, it’s just harassment,” she said.

New York Democratic Party officials complained Monday that the calls also had been made on Sunday and Monday to voters in four hotly contested House districts.

The Democrats say that a few calls have been made in the early morning or middle of night, and that some voters received several calls minutes apart. Republican officials said that would have happened only if there was a computer glitch.

Others, like Ms. Hollis, the Villanova professor, say they have filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission. Its rules on automated calls require that callers state their identity at the beginning of the message. These calls end with a disclaimer that they were paid for by the Republican committee; no identification is made at the start of the message.

Political messages are exempt from the federal do-not-call rules meant to discourage unwanted sales pitches. But a New Hampshire law prohibits making automated calls to people who are on the do-not-call list. The Republican committee agreed on Sunday to halt calls there at the urging of the state attorney general.

David Kaplan, a registered Republican in Connecticut who has received more than two dozen of the calls, said he was so annoyed that the Republicans might “have shot themselves in the leg” in terms of winning his vote.