So, I’m minding my own business one day, when I suddenly get a call. I look at my cell phone window, only to see the caller is from a Restricted Number. This kind of thing irks me, but to be polite, I answer. After my traditional “Hello,” I am greeted by a voice telling me it has a message about the political campaign in my area, followed immediately by an attack ad on Democratic Congressional candidate Joe Courtney. In the following weeks, I will get the same call again, sometimes multiple times a week! I knew I couldn’t possibly be the only one experiencing this, but now I’ve found out how bad it is.
According to WFSB.com, many Connecticut voters have been complaining of receiving cell phone calls from the National Republican Congressional Committee. Their primary gripe appears to be the fact that these calls take up the valuable minutes they have on their plans. Way to go, Republicans. If you want to do anything to turn off voters from your candidate, call them on their cell phone and use up their minutes…multiple times! Never mind the fact that cell phone users are complaining, anybody would have a right to rant if they were getting harassed by such callers! At first, I thought the messages were directly from the Simmons campaign until I actually listened through the entire message one day, only to find out it’s from the NRCC. Still, I’d bet some people are getting fed up with him if they’ve been receiving these calls, like I have. They might assume Simmons is endorsing these calls, and change their mind on how they want to vote. That sure is some tactic to sway people to your side!
Now, I have my cell phone listed on my voter registration, since frankly, that’s where I can be contacted while I’m at college, so maybe I have no right to complain. However, I think the Republicans are overdoing it with the volume of calls. They need to far be less intrusive if they want people to keep considering their candidate. I know people get annoyed enough by telemarketer calls. Well, there’s a whole lot more they can do to react to these messages. Like, vote the associated candidate out of office!
Now, because I risk seeming like I’m bashing Republicans, does anybody know if the Democrats are doing this anywhere? Maybe in a district that is covered by a House Democrat, like John Larson or Laura DeRosa? If so, that’s just as bad. So, if you wish to stop receiving calls from the NRCC, call 202-646-6412 and request that your number be removed from their list. It may be a mute point now that we’re less than a week away from Election Day, but it might help.
