It's that time of the week when phones start ringing with recorded messages from our beloved governor.

Gov. Rick Scott has gotten in the habit of recording a series of phone messages, which are sent out in robocalls to Florida households.

Last week, his message was about how unemployment figures have been improving since he has been in office. Before that, he was touting his plan to drug-test welfare recipients and go after pill mills. In his first phone message, he talked about cutting government spending.

I'm hoping that his next message will talk about how he is spending this weekend in Colorado with dirty-energy billionaires David and Charles Koch, who undoubtedly admire Scott's reverence for using government to

help those who need help the least.

Scott has described these phone messages, which are paid for by the Republican Party of Florida, as a way to get his message out.

Strategy defies popular wisdom

I suspect it's aimed at improving his dismal approval ratings. If so, it's a strange way to do it, because I don't know anybody who likes picking up a ringing phone to hear a recorded political message, even from people they admire.

"I can't imagine that it's working for him," said Shaun Dakin, founder of the Washington-based National Political Do Not Contact Registry.

"The evidence shows that robocalls just turn people off and make people angry."

Dakin's group, which tracks the use of political robocalls, says these calls are frequently used as last-ditch efforts during the run-up to an election - and that Scott may be the first elected official who is using the campaign tactic as a general communication tool during non-election times.

"It's not a good sign," Dakin said. "It's bound to make him even more unpopular than he already is."

The calls are aimed, in part, at independents, who may be sitting on the political fence.

David Seltzer, 74, of suburban Lake Worth, who is a registered voter with no party affiliation, has continued to get the calls, much to his increasing annoyance.

"Most of the time, I just hang up," Seltzer said. "I got a feeling that he might be trying to call my cellphone, too, so I leave it turned off."

GOP receives flood of complaints

Seltzer was so annoyed that he wrote the Florida inspector general to complain.

"I would like to file a complaint regarding Mr. Scott making unsolicited calls for a phone number on the national do-not-call list, even after being asked not to," Seltzer wrote.

The inspector general's office referred him to the governor's office, which referred him to the Republican Party of Florida.

The party's been getting an earful, according to online sites dedicated to phone complaints.

"The poor girl who answered the phone there said she's been flooded with complaints," one commenter wrote on one site. "She wrote down my numbers and promised to forward them to the appropriate department for removal from their list. She was very nice, and I actually felt sorry for her."

Other complainants wrote of getting five calls from Scott in a three-hour period, or not getting beyond a recorded message when trying to complain.

"I am no longer a Republican. Switched to Independent," one commenter wrote. "If they think that harassing me is going to get me to switch back, they are nuts."

Howard Schneider, 85, of Palm Beach Gardens, another independent, complained to the do-not-call registry.

"I saw that there were certain exceptions to the list," Schneider said. "And that politicians were part of it, but this is just plain advertising. It's not like he's asking you to do something. I'd hate to think that everybody can do this. What can we do to get politicians on the do-not-call list?"

Dakin's group thinks that people ought to be protected from being barraged with political robocalls.

"If people want to get political robocalls, they should be able to raise their hands and say, 'Call me,' " Dakin said. "But everybody else should have a chance to opt out."

But at this point, I'd say that urinalysis-for-all has a better chance of happening in Florida.

"You can't stop the governor from calling you with a political message," said Bill Newton, executive director of the Florida Consumer Action Network.

~ frank_cerabino@pbpost.com