The Union Of Politics And Telemarketing -- What's Not To Like?

Robocalls -- those recorded, automatically dailed phone messages -- have been lighting up phones everywhere the past few days. Nobody seems to like getting them. Some are innocuous -- the standard fare of campaigns and candidates. But then there are underhanded, unaccountable calls meant to confuse voters.

For example, calls have been going out into Virginia and Pennsylvania telling people to vote tomorrow, on Nov. 5, according to Jonah Goldman, director of Election Protection at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. Goldman says he doesn't know who's responsible, but similar misleading messages are being distributed via email, FaceBook and flyers, often targeting young and minority voters.

A third kind of robocall comes from independent groups trying to influence your vote. The Republican Jewish Coalition, for example, is sending anti-Obama robocalls to Jewish voters. The call quotes Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) saying that Obama lacked the "political courage" to leave Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church. The RJC labels the United Church of Christ congregation "anti-Semitic" and "anti-American." The call hammers home the point with this: "If Obama doesn't have the courage to do the right thing here at home, can he stand up to dictators and tyrants who seek to do us harm? We should all be concerned about Barack Obama."

The National Political Do Not Call Registry tracks all sorts of robocalls -- and lets you report them.

Christina Perkins, of eastern Virginia, told us she got her first robocall last week, and was a bit taken aback. The call, she says, started out asking if she is a registered voter, without identifying who wanted to know. The second question, "Are you pro-life?" struck Perkins as "sort of out of left field."

She answered, "No," to which the robocall replied by saying that Obama would "raise your taxes by almost $3,000." Does that change your mind about Obama, the call asked? Perkins said, "No," and the message concluded by saying the group that sponsored it was in support of John McCain.

Perkins couldn't remember the exact name of the group, but we traced it back to Christian conservative leader, one-time presidential hopeful and former Reagan advisor Gary Bauer.

Bauer, who heads Americans United to Preserve Marriage and the group American Values, hired ccAdvertising to do the calls in Virginia, said his spokeswoman, Kristi Hamrick. Hamrick said Bauer also ran some get-out-the-vote radio ads in battleground states.

Hamrick said she wasn't sure which Bauer organization paid for the robocalls But it appears to be Americans United to Preserve Marriage. Let's check out the group's funding after the jump...

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1:35 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Ads Hit McCain In Home State, Obama In Florida

Arizona is McCain territory -- he's made his home there since 1982 -- and losing it to Barack Obama would sting. So it's no wonder MoveOn.org wants to make that happen. With Obama's campaign gearing up in the state, the liberal group joins in with this TV ad, showcasing a Republican vet who is voting for Obama.

Obama's homestate of Illinois isn't really in play, so his foes are hitting him where it will hurt most. The Republican Jewish Coalition extended its ad buy in Florida with a $104,000 donation from David Kaufman, a Connecticut businessman who runs an eye care center.

It's down to the wire, folks, so this is your last chance to lay down $100k for the cause!

Whichever cause that might be.

-- Will Evans

5:02 PM ET | 10-31-2008 | permalink

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Jewish Republicans Like Hillary?

If Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic primary, the Republican Jewish Coalition might be quoting Barack Obama. But, as fate would have it, Obama won -- so the RJC says "Hillary is right."

The Republican group has launched a TV ad calling Obama's foreign policy "naive" because he said "I would" when asked if he would be willing to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. The ad quotes Clinton -- this was back when she and Obama were in the thick of a brutal primary brawl -- saying of Obama, "That was irresponsible and frankly naive." (The question came up at a CNN debate, and stipulated that talks were part of an evolving peace initiative.)

Clinton has moved on, of course. She's campaigning for Obama in Florida -- one of the states where the ad is airing. The million-dollar-plus buy will put the ad in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada as well.

The TV ad is a first for the Republican Jewish Coalition in this cycle. It's already produced a series of print advertisements attacking Obama in Jewish newspapers, often with the slogan, "Concerned about Barack Obama? You should be."

It's a fierce fight for the presidency among Jewish advocacy organizations. The National Jewish Democratic Council has run its own pro-Obama and anti-McCain ads in newspapers. And when the Jewish Council for Education and Research enlisted comedian Sarah Silverman in calling for a "Great Schlep" to help Obama, the Republican Jewish Coalition fired back with a retort by comedian Jackie Mason, who calls Silverman a "yenta," or meddlesome blabbermouth.

-- Will Evans

7:22 PM ET | 10-20-2008 | permalink

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Religion, Politics Mix In Two Ad Campaigns

Update 09/17/08: Read Catholics United's latest tax return here.

Two political religious groups have launched dueling ad campaigns, one attacking Obama and the other McCain.

The Republican Jewish Coalition -- which recently sparked quite a brouhaha with anti-Obama polls -- is running ads in Jewish newspapers that say, "Concerned about Barack Obama? You should be." Oddly, a spokeswoman wouldn't say which newspapers. The most recent ad calls Obama's views on Israel "dangerous." The RJC has ties to many Republican leaders; at the 2004 convention it held a lavish reception honoring Tom DeLay (R-TX), then the House majority leader. One RJC board member is Washington lobbyist Wayne Berman, who's also a national finance committee co-chair for McCain.

Meanwhile, an advocacy group called Catholics United plans to run TV ads, starting Sept. 19, saying that McCain isn't truly pro-life. The ads, targeted to Catholic neighborhoods in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, faults McCain for voting against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program and for supporting the Iraq war. It features a self-described pro-life mother saying, "Sen. McCain, when will you start defending all human life, without exception?"

More information on both groups, after the jump...

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4:59 PM ET | 09-17-2008 | permalink

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