Taxpayers have always footed the bill for postage so that congressmen can mail their constituents a nice rosy picture of what they "accomplished" in Washington. It's one of the reasons that incumbents have an advantage over challengers. Mailing households is very expensive. Even more expensive is a new method being used by incumbent congressmen called a TeleTown Hall.
Based on my own experience with auto-dialing systems, I can tell you that it's very expensive. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX 26) is making 20,000 calls at a time, each of which costs probably at least $.08 to dial depending on volume. Of these, more than 7000 chose to participate in the hour-long call, which is probably costing an additional $.08 per minute. By my estimates, this is costing ((20,000 * .08) + (59 * .08 * 7000)) or ($1600 + $33,040) or $34,640! I believe we need to launch an investigation into this to determine just how much of our tax dollars he is spending.
If you read my earlier coverage on Michael Burgess's old-fashioned town hall (
Rep. Michael Burgess Town Hall Meeting 7/15/06 - Part I), you know that although it's not officially a campaign stop and is not legally allowed to interface with the campaign, it is effective PR, and is mostly prepared soundbyte bullshit.
Further, by the targeting of these calls to only certain voters in his core conservative districts, it would be very easy to use this as a campaign tool. This is one reason why I support publicly financed campaigns for federal offices. Michael Burgess apparently believes in public financing for incumbents like himself.
District 26 Congressman, Michael Burgess issued this press release (also available at http://burgess.house.gov/...):
Rep. Burgess Hosts New Tele-Town Hall Format
Washington, Jul 25 -
Last night, Congressman Michael C. Burgess hosted his second telephone town hall, commonly referred toas a "Tele-Town Hall." It is the latest and greatest of new technology that a Member of Congress can utilize to communicate more effectively with constituents.
"It is a fireside chat for the 21st Century," said Congressman Burgess. "The process provides direct interaction between me and my constituents. I hear straight from them about the issues that are most important to them."
Monday's call was the second Tele-Town Hall hosted by Congressman Michael Burgess. The July 24th call reached out to a wide range of towns in Denton County. Constituents from Aubrey, Denton, Highland Village, Ponder, Copper Canyon, Flower Mound and many other towns had the opportunity to ask Congressman Burgess a question. Over 20,000 constituents received a message from the Congressman with over 7,000 people participating during the call.
Designed to reach out to constituents who may not be able to attend a physical town hall, the new Tele-Town Hall has met with great success from families with children, senior citizens and others who found it convenient to be on the hour long call in the evenings just after dinner.
"Communicating with constituents is my number one priority," said Congressman Burgess. "Since January of this year, my office has responded to over 26,000 letters from constituents, but these new Tele-Town Halls give people the option of talking to me from the comfort of their own home."
Let me just interrupt here. If you want to see how he's responded to his constituents letters, try reading these:
How it works: A phone list, gathered from the Texas Secretary of State's voter registration list, is complied and added to a phone bank. The phone bank automatically dials the constituents as Congressman Burgess prepares to receive calls. As people select to enter into the Tele-Town Hall, Congressman Burgess discusses the basics of the program, provides general information about his office and gives a brief update on recent news and legislative action in Congress. When most callers have opted into the town hall, Congressman Burgess begins taking caller's question. Each Tele-Town Hall lasts approximately one hour in length as of Members of Congress utilize the same service. While not all caller's who have a question are able to speak during the allotted time, a voicemail system is in place so anyone can leave their individual message for the Congressman and will receive an answer in reply.
Folks, this is not right. The timing of this indicates that it is simply a campaign tactic being passed off as a town hall. Please help stop this practice in two ways:
1. Call or write Congressman Burgess's offices: (Feel free to tell him that read it on dailykos.com)
Washington:
1721 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-7772
Lewisville, TX District Office:
1660 South Stemmons Freeway
Suite 230
Lewisville, TX 75067
(972) 434-9700
2. If Burgess should happen to call you for one of these, and you have a tape recorder, RECORD THE CALL or try to take notes and contact me by emailing webmaster at whosplayin dot com.
I think we should seek an injunction against this new "perk" for incumbents unless the same privilege is extended to challengers. I'm no lawyer, but this doesn't seem right, and I'd like to see the public law that allows it, and the constitutional authority for it.
Help bounce this clown out of office this November. Vote for Tim Barnwell for Congress in District 26. Visit www.barnwellforcongress.com today.