Here’s something else to look for on the July campaign finance filings under “consulting.”
Democratic Rep. Megan Smith, whose district spans Bridgewater, Chittenden, Killington, Mendon, is the subject of robocalls into her towns attacking her votes on taxes, the state budget, and lifting Pre-K caps (pesky kids).
Interestingly, the calls show up on caller ID as from a number in the Washington DC area: 202-747-7306. There is no answer when the number is called back. Not only has the phone number been associated on the web with calls against a Democratic-Party-associated judge in Pennsylvania, as well as in support of former Republican US Representative Melissa Hart, also from PA (h/t/ Barlow).
But sharp-eyed readers will recognize it as the phone number behind some of the anti-marriage equality robocalls in Vermont earlier this year.
So the question then is, why? The timing doesn’t seem very useful. It is rather a long time between now and election day, and robocalls are getting to be a touchy subject among many in Vermont and are generally being approached with more care of late, rather than less.
The possibilities that jump to mind are that its a) message testing against a “live” target, or b) something funded by the local-level GOP. Robocalls are amazingly cheap, so it wouldn’t take much fundraising to make it happen (and local organizations can be a little more impulsive than their larger-scale, professionally staffed counterparts). If so, given that these calls apparently represent a go-to firm for state Republicans, its likely being at least coordinated at the State Committee level through our pal Rob Roper.
The question is, then, are these calls happening in any other districts against any other incumbent Dems (or Progs, for that matter). Anybody hear anything? Better yet, anybody record anything?
“Please stay on the line to hear an important message from (I forget the GOP Senator who it was) and then I’ll ask you one question after…” The guy then ranted for about a minute in Fox News style about the socialist president, taxes, bla bla… and the woman came back on line and asked something like “do you agree that Senator so and so is right in his concerns for our American way of life in the face of the socialist menance…” bla bla… I merely said “ma’am, I am a socialist”, waited a few seconds to listen to the thunderous silence on her end, and hung up.
I suspect this was a test. Watch for a follow-up poll, etc. We can only hope these calls work as well as the anti-marriage equality ones did… I’d like to get my hands on the person who invented robocalls…
BD
We need to start identifying these calls correctly. They are not Robocalls, they are Ropercalls. All of these crazy Ropercalls are the handy work of the head of the Vermont Republican Party. It is all a coordinated effort which Vermonters will reject big time. Keep up the good work Rob, we liberals appreciate your help.
I just received a tip about this poll that is being conducted by “We the People of Vermont”. Does anyone know anything about this group?
http://www.wethepeoplevt.com/l…
There have been 552 respondents to this survey so far. The last question seems like a loaded and leading question.