NC Attorney General Opens Invesitigation of WVWV Robocalls

Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org

According to TPM, the NC Attorney General Cooper has opened an investigation into the Robocalls made by Women's Voices Women Vote organization that is getting so much attention in the blogosphere but not, yet, by the mainstream media. (copy of press release at TPM)

It is interesting that the AG is going after WVWV for violating the law, but they are not going after other non-profit organizations that may also be violating the law. 

The calls violated the law according to the AG's press release:

The calls violated state law by failing to disclose who sponsored the call and failing to offer the organization’s contact information to get the calls to stop. 

The reality is that there are more than likely several campaigns and other non-profit organizations that are "failing to disclose who sponsored the call" and "failing to offer the org's contact information to get the calls to stop".

In fact, I know of no political campaign at the national level that offers voters a way to opt out of further calls.

That is why Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Lofgren have introduced the Robocall Privacy Act.

As I stated in my op-ed in Politico today.

Recently, a bicameral and bipartisan effort has been led by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Reps. Zoe Lofgren (-Calif.) and John Campbell (R-Calif.) with the introduction of the Robocall Privacy Act. The bill would sanction groups or individuals who make political robocalls between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., make more than two political robocalls to the same number in the same day, fail to disclose the party responsible for the political robocall or block caller identification information.

Why is the AG not going after other organizations?

Is it because this is a political hot potato?

This from TPM:

North Carolina's attorney general has just put out a press release (pdf) saying that he's investigating the calls and taking credit for having them stopped. "Regardless of the motivation, the robo-calls violated the law and they needed to stop," Roy Cooper said. He also includes a correspondence with the group's lawyer. In the letter, Cooper requests a variety of information about the calls.

Sarah Johnson, the group's spokeswoman declined to comment on the correspondence, referring questions to the group's lawyer. But she did say that the calls occurred last Thursday and Friday in North Carolina as they did in all the other 24 states (pdf) targeted by the group this April.

Comments

[jakester]

"But she did say that the calls occurred last Thursday and Friday in North Carolina as they did in all the other 24 states (pdf) targeted by the group this April."

Hi Shaun - I have a question. WVWV seems to be embarking on a disinformation campaign. They say that they are targeting 24 states "this April" yet they're touting on their website an article published April 30 in Craig, Colorado, that is essentially a rewrite of a press release received by the editor on Tuesday, April 29. There's no mention in that release of robocalls or a big Colorado voter registration effort in April.

I have a source at a Colorado progressive organization that does lots of voter registration, and from what he can discern, WVWV targeted Colorado voters earlier in the year but in fact has done NOTHING in the state in April.

This seems like a cover-up to me. Can you please investigate further?

Thanks!

Jonathan Kelley
Chicago, IL