Political Robocalls: They’re Back!

If you do not recall the midterm congressional elections of 2006, it is because the brain sometimes has a hard time retrieving the details of traumatic events. Those who do remember will recall that the 2006 election cycle was notable for the negativity it brought to the political discourse, especially in the Fifth Congressional District. Democrat Chris Murphy unseated incumbent Republican Nancy Johnson in a rough and tumble race in which the agents of each did their best to impugn the character and destroy the reputation of the other. It was the kind low-blow lollapalooza that motivates us to lock the door and protect the kids. That, however, proved insufficient since the mud slinging still managed to seep into our homes over the phone lines. At the time, we encouraged legislators to strengthen the state’s popular telephone solicitation restrictions to include political “robocalls.” Several state legislators, sensing a public backlash to the intrusive addition of hardball half-truth politics to the dinner hour, even promised legislation to attack the problem — legislation that never materialized.

Now, two years later, the calls are starting again. In recent weeks, voters in the Fifth Congressional District have begun to receive “emergency gas price alerts” from the conservative advocacy group Freedom’s Watch, targeting Rep Chris Murphy and other Democratic lawmakers around the nation. That initiative has inspired a liberal advocacy group, Act Blue, to mount a campaign to counter those calls with robocalls of its own taking the other side. We expect the Presidential race this year will also heat up our home phone lines after this summer’s national conventions. This year, the automated call technology is likely to be more sophisticated, adding interactive options allowing for “push polls,” allowing political operatives to ask provocative and misleading questions that give them some poison-tipped “polling data” to use against their opponents.

This kind of battle may be immensely interesting and important to political insiders, but for the rest of us it is quite clearly useless propaganda and an annoying and persistent interruption to our private lives. Political marketing firms have long argued that these calls are somehow part of their right to free speech. Yet, several courts have decided that they are not, including the US Supreme Court, which upheld North Dakota political robocall restrictions.

Since state legislative candidates are also on the ballot this year, and ostensibly in the mood to listen to voters, we need to make sure they hear what we think about these intrusive political calls. Dial them up and keep dialing — at dinnertime if you can manage it. Tell them it’s time that Connecticut hangs up once and for all on political robocalls.