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Lori Alexander - Candidate for Congress (VA-11) - Takes "Do Not Robo Call" Pledge

Contact:  Shaun Dakin  

ALEXANDER TAKES “DO NOT ROBO CALL” PLEDGE

CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS LORI ALEXANDER (VA-11) BECOMES FIRST VIRGINIA CANDIDATE TO PLEDGE NOT TO "ROBO CALL” VOTERS

WASHINGTON, D.C.  May 2nd,  2008 – Candidate for Congress Lori Alexander (D-VA-11) today announced her pledge not to conduct “robo calls” to voters in Virginia’s 11th district.   Lori Alexander is the 5th politician in the nation to take the “Do Not Robo Call” pledge and the first candidate in Virginia to do so since the non-profit Citizens for Civil Discourse launched the National Political Do Not Contact Registry (NPDNC) last October.  Tom Davis (R-VA) announced his retirement from Congress earlier this year and the seat is extremely competitive with four Democrats running to replace Congressman Davis.

”Even though robocalls are cheap, I do not think that they have a place in our Democracy and, specifically, in this race to replace Tom Davis” says Alexander,  “Increasingly, campaigns have outsourced the hard work of contacting voters by using impersonal, cheap, and ineffective automated or robo calls.  What happened to voters being contacted by volunteers?  Though robo calls are efficient they do not promote any discussion.   I want my volunteers to make phone calls and knock on doors.  Only through personal one-on-one contact can voters connect and discuss the issues that voters care so much about."

By joining the National Political Do Not Contact Registry, Lori Alexander is giving the voters in Virginia’s 11th district peace and quiet as well as a chance to register for free to remove their phone numbers from other local, state, and national call lists by going directly to The National Political Do Not Contact Registry (NPDNC) website at StopPoliticalCalls.org <http://stoppoliticalcalls.org/>  to demand that other candidates take the “do not robo call” pledge as well.

“I am pleased that Lori Alexander is the first politician in Virginia to take the “do not robo call” pledge and is offering voters the opportunity to opt out of robo calls throughout the state,” said Shaun Dakin, founder and CEO of StopPoliticalCalls.org <http://stoppoliticalcalls.org/> .  “To my knowledge, Lori is the first candidate in Virginia to be clear about giving citizens who do not want to receive robo calls a mechanism to opt out.   Lori has taken the first decisive step in what I believe to be the crucial effort of giving voters back their privacy and peace and quiet in their own homes.  The voters of Virginia’s 11th district are fortunate to have someone like Lori running to represent them in Congress.”

The National Political Do Not Contact Registry fills a void in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) National Do Not Call (DNC) registry.   Because the First Amendment protects political speech, political calls are specifically excluded from the Federal DNC.  While Americans have registered nearly 150 million phone numbers with the DNC, Georgetown University research determined that 3 out of 4 voters do not know that political calls are exempt from the DNC.  In fact, The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 81 percent of Iowa caucus voters received automated (or “robo”) calls during November 2007.

“I started the StopPoliticalCalls.org <http://stoppoliticalcalls.org/>  to give voters back their sanity during election season,” said Dakin.  “Many voters consider their homes to be a sanctuary and consider calls – especially the automated ‘robo’ calls – from politicians and political groups to be invasive.”

At the voluntary National Political Do Not Contact Registry, our members report receiving 10 to 15 calls about robocalls each day during election season. Mothers are having their babies awakened from naps. Night shift workers who sleep during the day are not able to get the rest they need to be productive. Seniors live in fear of a health emergency occurring while their phone line is tied up with yet another robocall.

As a member wrote to us recently: "My 85-year-old mother who had a stroke sometimes is at home alone, and when these phone calls come in, it confuses her and gets her upset when someone doesn't listen to her. She doesn't understand that it is an automated call."

It is time for these calls to stop.

About Lori Alexander, Candidate Congress (VA-11):

Lori Alexander is a wife and mother of four children. She grew up in a single family household with five siblings in the low income area of Lowell, Massachusetts and, at that time, her only option was to attend school in the projects. Lori knows what it is like to be educated in failing schools because, unfortunately, many of the instructors at her school had “written off” the students before they even entered the classroom. Lori explains, “I was told my entire life that higher education was not for people like me, so I attended a Vocational High School to train as a secretary.” After graduation, Lori was hired as an executive secretary for Raytheon and a new world opened up to her.

Lori has also pledged to focus her efforts on health care, for the retirees, for the poor, for those that do not have a voice against the powerful, health care special interests. As a mother, Lori knows that it is of the utmost importance for her to focus her energy on those issues that impact the world we will leave to our children and grandchildren. “Health care, education and the environment are supremely important to me; we can do far better for our children in these areas and I intend to make this goal my mission.”

Lori wants you to join her in a quest to make real change for the people in the community. Moreover, according to Lori, we can reach these goals by focusing on the needs and issues of the 11th congressional district, not the special interests. Lori asks you to “please vote in the June 10th primary for the Best Choice for Change.”

About the National Political Do Not Contact Registry (NPDNC) – StopPoliticalCalls.org:

The National Political Do Not Contact Registry is a program of Citizens for Civil Discourse (CCD), non-partisan,  non-profit organization (federal 501(c)(3) status pending) dedicated to elevating political discussion in the United States.  CCD is based on the premise that the decline of civility in American political dialogue has diminished our nation’s capacity to address urgent problems. Founder and CEO Shaun Dakin believes that citizen action is required to restore decency, respect and common sense to public debate in this country.

CCD created the National Political Do Not Contact registry as a first step towards its goal by reducing unwanted political phone calls, particularly automated messages (“robo” calls).  Because the U.S. Constitution protects political speech, CCD advocates addressing this issue not by enacting new legislation but by encouraging voters to take back control of the political conversation and make free speech a two-way exchange.  Learn more at www.StopPoliticalCalls.org.

The NPDNC registry has 50,000 members nationwide who have registered at StopPoliticalCalls.org <http://stoppoliticalcalls.org/>  to let politicians know that they do not want to be called any longer.

Shaun Dakin, CEO and Founder, recently testified at the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration hearings on Robocalls.   You can read his testimony and obtain a video at:  http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/

Currently the following politicians have taken the National Political Do Not Contact (NPDNC) registry “do  not robo call” pledge:

Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Nancy Boyda (D-KS)
Matt Salisbury – Candidate - Congress (R-ID)
Mike Carter – Candidate – Lt. Governor  (D-MO)
Lori Alexander – Candidate – Congress (D-VA)

Democratic Dialing, a leading robo calling firm, has joined the NPDNC as well and pledged not to call those voters registered at the NPDNC registry.