http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.p...20060319-c1-00
GOP on defensive from call campaign
Interest groups target lawmakers early by phoning constituents
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Jonathan Riskind
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Upper Arlington, said some of her constituents mistakenly think the calls are from her campaign.
WASHINGTON — The woman told Rep. Deborah Pryce in no uncertain terms that she didn’t appreciate the message about the Dubai port-security flap left on her home answering machine.
"I expect to be removed from your campaigning call list — it is not helpful to me as a citizen — it is only damaging to your campaign efforts as I consider it harassing," her e-mail said.
But Pryce wasn’t responsible for the message.
It was one of thousands of socalled robo-calls to Pryce constituents in recent weeks by Democratic-leaning groups attacking the Upper Arlington Republican on port security, Medicare drug coverage and other issues.
They are similar to phone campaigns waged during the 2004 presidential race, conducted by groups known as 527s, after the section of the IRS code that governs their activities. They can take in and spend unlimited sums of money. Federal campaign-finance laws don’t apply to them, just to candidates and parties.
This time around, calls aimed at individual GOP lawmakers are notable both for their frequency and for how early they are. So far, Republican-leaning groups apparently haven’t returned fire.
GOP lawmakers say the calls confuse some people and prompt others to express support or criticism. But there is no question about robo-calls’ impact.
"I hear about them whenever I’m home, everywhere I go," Pryce said. "My parents have received them, my staff has received them, my friends have received them."
The calls aren’t limited to Pryce, whose race against challenger Mary Jo Kilroy, a Franklin County commissioner, is being watched as a national barometer of Democratic efforts to regain a House majority.
They have been pouring into other Ohio GOP lawmakers’ districts, including those of Reps. Pat Tiberi, of Genoa Township, and Bob Ney, of Heath, and dozens of others across the country.
Many come from a group called American Family Voices, headed by Mike Lux, a former Clinton administration official and Democratic consultant, and Working America, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
New calls sponsored by Working America started in GOP districts recently, charging that the lawmakers were in the pockets of drug companies while confused seniors grappled with the new Medicare drug law.
"Congressman X voted for the drug program and has drug companies and HMOs laughing all the way to the bank and the rest of us scratching our heads," the message said, according to House Republicans’ transcript of a call.
Republicans have formed a "527 Rapid Response Team" to track the calls and give GOP lawmakers ammunition to answer them.
More mysterious groups — including one calling itself "We the People" that doesn’t seem to exist under that name — have produced altered caller ID numbers to make it look as though the calls are coming from the lawmakers they are attacking.
The Republican targets say the calling groups are spending large sums of money with very little accountability.
"I’m all for free speech, but there has got to be some sort of accountability to people spending potentially millions of dollars without anyone knowing who they are," Tiberi said.
Another sign of GOP concern is that House Republicans are trying to clamp down on the 527 organizations. Republicans want them regulated by campaign-finance laws.
American Family Voices’ Lux said he is simply using automated calls to spread a message instead of print ads or television.
At 6 or 7 cents a call, Lux said, "this might be a cost-effective way of moving a message to people and getting people talking about issues, and I do think we have succeeded at that. That’s a healthy kind of thing in a democracy."
Republican lawmakers apparently can’t look to conservative groups for sympathy in their efforts to stave off the calls. Conservative 527 groups want to protect their own ability to make calls.
"We wouldn’t agree with their positions but we do with their right to do it," said Jason Wright, president of the conservative Institute for Liberty, an organization that houses LobbySense, a coalition of conservative groups.
And while Wright says it is "insanely early to me to be blowing through that kind of money," he wouldn’t be surprised if conservative-leaning groups soon send their own calls to Democrats.
jriskind@dispatch.com