However, problematic robocalls predate the ones by Conquest that are currently getting all the attention. Indeed, one of the first clear pieces on repeated, unrelenting robocalls appearing to come from a Democratic candidate came in a piece on the Congressional race in Idaho on October 13th.
Excerpts from that piece by Jill Kuraitis of New West Boise
A torrent of complaints is pouring into the Grant for Congress campaign about harassing, annoying, computer-generated telephone calls.
“It’s not us! We, too, have been getting them and find them just as annoying as everyone else,” said campaign spokesman Don Rosebrock.
The computer-generated calls (robocalls, in political parlance) began Thursday, Oct. 12, and are continuing, apparently, across the First District.
The Grant campaign believes two versions are being used, one that begins “When you go to the polls on Nov. 7 you’ll see the name ‘Larry Grant’ on the ballot. Let me tell you a little about Larry Grant….”
snip
Rosebrock said, “One person, who identified himself as a true blue Republican, complained to the campaign about receiving four of these annoying calls within an hour on Thursday evening."
It's clearly a very similar MO as the Conquest Communications robocalls. But FEC filings indicate that Conquest isn't involved in NRCC robocalling in Idaho - a different firm is: Direct Strategies.
Below is the information from the NRCC independent expenditure filings at the FEC for the period between October 1 and October 13th (the date of the article). The IE's aginst Grant in ID-01 are there, but the people at Direct Strategies were busy, busy, busy, also apparently hitting Arcuri in NY-24, Cranley in OH-01, Space in OH-18, Murphy in PA-08, Carney in PA-10, and Burner in WA-08.
To my knowledge, no one has commented on robocalls in these districts (other than ID-01) but given the timing of the independent expenditures (they perfectly overlap with the Conquest Communications surge in IE's) and the information from ID-01, one would have to bet that there are a whole lot more disaffected, robocalled voters in these districts.
I would also note that the pattern here is suggestive - this was the NRCC's defensive strategy in places where normally they'd win but they could get swamped in a massive Democratic wave. So, they set out to attack voters who might potentially go Democratic in what normally would be relatively red district, i.e., weak Democratic voters. It wouldn't take much to turn off new/weak Democratic voters, and with the deceptive robocalls they could do it for less than 10 cents a voter. This was their floodwall against the Democratic storm surge. We'll see tomorrow whether or not they were any better at protecting against political storms than they were against natural ones.
Anyway, here are the IE's
NRCC 10/13
23. Opposes Candidate: GRANT FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Idaho District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $5592.36
Purpose: Phone Banks
24. Opposes Candidate: GRANT FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Idaho District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $709.86
Purpose: Phone Banks
25. Opposes Candidate: ARCURI FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, New York District 24
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $1354.74
Purpose: Phone Banks
26. Opposes Candidate: ARCURI FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, New York District 24
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $5476.20
Purpose: Phone Banks
27. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $2410.38
Purpose: Phone Banks
28. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $1004.58
Purpose: Phone Banks
29. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $4587.96
Purpose: Phone Banks
30. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $1428.00
Purpose: Phone Banks
31. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $4086.42
Purpose: Phone Banks
32. Opposes Candidate: PATRICK MURPHY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 08
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $4659.36
Purpose: Phone Banks
33. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $1281.72
Purpose: Phone Banks
34. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/13/2006 Amount Expended = $3976.02
Purpose: Phone Banks
NRCC 10/12
21. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/12/2006 Amount Expended = $4446.60
Purpose: Phone Banks
22. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/12/2006 Amount Expended = $2341.32
Purpose: Phone Banks
23. Opposes Candidate: PATRICK MURPHY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 08
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/12/2006 Amount Expended = $2469.72
Purpose: Phone Banks
24. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/12/2006 Amount Expended = $2629.98
Purpose: Phone Banks
25. Opposes Candidate: DARCY BURNER FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Washington District 08
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/12/2006 Amount Expended = $2419.20
Purpose: Phone Banks
NRCC 10/11
12. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/11/2006 Amount Expended = $4683.00
Purpose: Phone Banks
13. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/11/2006 Amount Expended = $1105.68
Purpose: Phone Banks
NRCC 10/10
12. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/10/2006 Amount Expended = $4013.64
Purpose: Phone Banks
NRCC 10/9
19. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $1381.62
Purpose: Phone Banks
20. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $4096.14
Purpose: Phone Banks
21. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $4207.20
Purpose: Phone Banks
22. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $1389.54
Purpose: Phone Banks
23. Opposes Candidate: PATRICK MURPHY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 08
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $995.10
Purpose: Phone Banks
24. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $1232.28
Purpose: Phone Banks
25. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $3966.60
Purpose: Phone Banks
26. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $1309.56
Purpose: Phone Banks
27. Opposes Candidate: DARCY BURNER FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Washington District 08
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/09/2006 Amount Expended = $6025.92
Purpose: Phone Banks
NRCC 10/6
15. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/06/2006 Amount Expended = $2412.66
Purpose: Phone Banks
16. Opposes Candidate: ZACK SPACE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 18
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/06/2006 Amount Expended = $2328.12
Purpose: Phone Banks
17. Opposes Candidate: CARNEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Pennsylvania District 10
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/06/2006 Amount Expended = $2584.56
Purpose: Phone Banks
NRCC 10/5
2. Opposes Candidate: CRANLEY FOR CONGRESS
Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 01
Payee: DIRECT STRATEGIES
Date Expended = 10/05/2006 Amount Expended = $4694.46
Purpose: Phone Banks
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