Oregon AG warns Obama, Clinton campaigns about automated calls
Friday, May 16, 2008 1:18 PM PDT
By The Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articlePORTLAND — The campaigns for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have apologized for violating a new Oregon law that bans them from making automated phone calls to households on the federal no-call list.
The Oregon attorney general got a few complaints about unsolicited automated calls made from the Clinton campaign, said Stephanie Soden, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.
Isaac Baker, a Clinton campaign spokesman, said the campaign relies on automated calls to tell people about events and to urge them to vote. Campaign officials agreed to stop making the “robo” calls after the attorney general informed them about the law that took effect Jan. 1.
The law does allow candidates or campaign workers to make live, unsolicited calls, even to numbers on the no-call list. There’s also an exception allowing candidates or businesses to make automated calls to people with whom they’ve had previous relationships. For example, a credit-card company can call customers.
Violating Oregon’s law brings a maximum penalty of $5,000 per call. The calls could also backfire by angering voters.
Anne Stacey of Portland said she got a recorded call from Chelsea Clinton despite adding her number to the federal no-call list more than a year ago.
“It was in the evening, probably 7:30 to 8:30,” Stacey told The Oregonian newspaper. “I was just really upset.”
Though it was calls from the Clinton campaign that generated complaints, the Obama campaign acknowledged it had also made such calls.
“If someone who should not have been contacted received a call, then we deeply regret it and do apologize,” said Nick Shapiro, spokesman for Obama’s Oregon campaign.
“We will make every effort to ensure that it does not happen again.”
We got several wrote on May 16, 2008 4:27 PM:
ProgressiveNotLiberal wrote on May 17, 2008 5:30 AM:
1) The Obama campaign immediately owned up to making such calls themselves.
2) I kind of doubt your intentions with such a comment.
Please, don't join the Clintonites in exaggerating the truth. I expect better of supporters on both sides not to fall into the same ol same ol political trappings. If you want change, then you must start now! "
susie wrote on May 17, 2008 7:33 AM:
Gaias Child wrote on May 17, 2008 7:55 AM:
Shaun Dakin wrote on May 18, 2008 2:16 PM:
I started a non-profit, non-partisan organization last year to combat intrusive robo-calls by using a voluntary, private sector solution: the Political Do Not Contact Registry.
It’s similar to the federal government’s Do Not Call list. But to succeed it requires politicians who will honor the wishes of voters who’d rather not endure the endless robotic, political phone calls during campaign season.
North Carolina’s own Congresswoman Virginia Foxx was the first to sign our pledge. She has been fighting for the voters’ right to opt out of robo-calls for years. She introduced Congressional robo-call reform legislation and is a voice for change on this issue. So it was natural that she was the first to sign our pledge.
Voters’ phones will soon be ringing off the hook. Fed up voters can visit our web site at StopPoliticalCalls.org and add their names to our free Do Not Call registry. It’s time we give the political dialogue back to average, concerned citizens.
Shaun Dakin
Founder & CEO, the National Political Do Not Contact Registry
StopPoliticalCalls.org "
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