Republicans launch dirty tricks campaign

Reports have been coming in from Congressional Districts across America about a new scam being conducted by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The Republicans are using “robocalls” (automated, recorded campaign messages) to dial the same numbers over and over, and are designed to make the recipient think the calls are from Democrats.

It works like this: The calls begin with a message saying they have information from the local Democratic candidate (who they name), then there’s a pause for the person to hang up. If they don’t, the recipient gets a negative attack message. Only at the end is it revealed that the message is sponsored by the NRCC. If the recipient does hang up, then the robocall rings again and again in order to harass the recipient.

This is certainly illegal, at the very least because it rings people on the national “Do Not Call” list. But it probably violates other laws, too.

In 2002 Republicans jammed the phone lines of Democratic campaigns, making it impossible for them to use their phones for their get out the vote efforts. It appears that the Republicans haven’t run out of dirty tricks yet.

Make sure every American voter you know hears about this. If you have a blog, post about it and ping Technorati. If enough people do this, the mainstream media may pick up on the growing scandal.

Update 7/11/06: Republican efforts to suppress Democratic votes are continuring right up to the wire. For more, check out this article on Virginia voter suppression efforts. This and other articles on Republican dirty tricks can be seen at The Daily Kos.