Reply #5: NJ's 5th Congressional District was a victim of GOP phone pranks in 2002

[brentspeak]

Democratic candidate Ann Sumers was competing against Republican Scott Garrett for Marge Roukema's vacated congressional seat. In the last week leading up to Election Day, thousands of households in the 5th Congressional District received daily anonymous, "robo-calls" which targeted Ann Sumers. The calls basically followed this outline: "This is a call concerning Democrat Ann Sumers...(pause of 5 seconds, then resume)...Ann Sumers wants to raise your taxes. She voted to raise taxes on NJ residents 3 times. Call Ann Sumers, and tell her you're sick and tired of her raising your taxes."

Click. End of message. No "this was paid for by Friends To Elect Republican Scott Garrett", no identification, no nothing. Caller ID didn't work, *69 didn't work.

As I said, these calls were spammed to 5th Congressional District household on a daily basis for an entire week, sometimes several times a day. Some people who were annoyed by them actually thought it was Ann Sumers herself who was behind the calls because of the clever pause after the "This is a call concerning Democrat Ann Sumers"; people would hang up before they heard the rest of the message, believing it was a call from Ann Sumers.

There was something else: Ann Sumers never "voted to raise taxes on NJ residents 3 times" -- she couldn't have, because had never held a political office before.

Needless to say, the Garrett campaign denied knowing anything about the calls. "We'd like to know who's behind them, too." Ha, ha, yeah right. Turned out the Club For Growth was putting millions into getting Garrett elected, and they're the most likely culprit.

Campaign finance reform laws? What reform? Anybody can make harrassing, misleading, anonymous phone calls to the public and get away with it if its regards an election.