Political recorded messages

When the FTC’s nationwide Do Not Call registry was created, there were a few groups excluded. Companies you’re already doing business with can still call you. Makes sense, mostly. Non-profits can still use telemarketing to pitch you their fundraising efforts. And political parties can still call you. That’s right, when lawmakers decided that consumers should have the right to take back their phone lines and stop getting pitches, recorded messages, and interruptions at dinner time, they exempted themselves from the law. Nice.

I’m getting several calls a day from the local Republican party, candidates, and ballot measure supporters. All are recorded messages urging me to vote in general, to vote for a specific candidate, or to tell all my friends to do the same. It’s irritating. It’s a shameful way to promote your cause. I sometimes forward my home number to my cell phone so I don’t miss important calls. That means these junk calls are costing me money.

I’ve called the party’s communications office, but all I get is a company directory with no information about who I actually should talk to. And it’s Sunday, so no one seems to be around.

I’m not the only one. An old blog entry of mine is attracting comments from people annoyed by this tactic as well. Is there anyone who actually likes these calls? Could they possibly be effective?

It’s bad enough that I’ve started keeping track of who calls me. That way I know who and what I shouldn’t vote for.

And what’s with the Californian Republican Party web site? Looks like maybe they hired a staffer’s grade-school aged kid to design it. Animated logos; big, ugly marquee scrollers; frames; no email address for contacting them; and loaded with clip art. Hello, 1996 called. They’d like their web site back.