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A possible hangup for politicians

(Pensacola News Journal (FL))Looking to escape from politicians on your telephone?

You may be able to avoid the federal candidates — president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives — by signing up at www.stoppoliticalcalls.org. It’s a nonprofit, nonpartisan group trying to convince politicians to stop making those irritating automated "robo" calls that always seem to interrupt a meal or wake a sleeping baby.

"Voters are absolutely fed up with this calling," says Shaun Dakin, finder of the organization. "We’re getting a lot of good reaction from parties on all sides of the issue."

Political calls are exempted from the Do Not Call Registry, which is one of Uncle Sam’s best feats. Started in 2003, it gives people a place to list numbers they want exempt from most callers. It has received about 150 million numbers.

Political calls can’t be sent to the Do Not Call Registry; they’re allowed under the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.

But Dakin says his organization is collecting the numbers and telling candidates that the owners of these numbers do not want to be called by politicians. He told me in a telephone interview Tuesday that he hopes to announce within a few weeks that a major candidate will "take the pledge" and vow not to use robo calls.

"Whether it’s a political candidate marketing or a mortgage broker marketing," people hate robo calls, Dakin said.

Politicians persist in making robo calls because they reach so many people and cost little money, yet a Yale University study in 2004 found that automated calls had no impact on the outcome of elections, Dakin said.

Dakin, who is based in Washington, D.C., said his organization hopes to be in full swing in time for November’s presidential election.

If he does all this for free, how does he make enough money to stay in business?

1) Donations. Some people are so grateful that they send him money.

2) His organization has found a subset of people who actually want to be called by politicians or contacted by activist groups. "It’s a very small percent of people," he said.

He charges them $1.24 a year and then licenses their information to appropriate groups — environmental issues may be e-mailed to a person who asks for information on the ecology, for example.