The NY 19th has surprised nearly everyone with an incredibly tight race between progressive Dem John Hall running neck and neck against 6 term party-line Repub incumbent Sue Kelly. The Hall campaign is deluged with volunteers and has mounted an enormous coordinated grass roots GOTV effort.
Rovian tactics are in full swing: Kelly is using her war chest of PAC money on over-the-top negative ads on radio, tv and daily mailers, using every dirty trick you can imagine. Now this new low - yesterday, after canvassers reported that some voters were angry with the Hall campaign for relentless phone calls, we discovered that a 3rd party is sponsoring a robo call that initially appears to come from the Hall campaign. You won't believe this one...
Here's the rub - if the person hangs up on the call, there is an automatic call back every 15 minutes until the person listens to the message in its entirety (we've heard people getting 7 and more repeated calls)! The goal is to get the voter so annoyed by the harrassing calls that they decide not to vote for Hall. A new chapter in the ongoing saga of voter disenfranchisement and manipulation. Has anyone heard of this occurring in their congressional race?