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MEDIA ADVISORY 
W.Va. Democrat Leaders Accused Of Illegal Calls, Again 
1000s Of Anonymous Defamatory Calls Against GOP Senate Candidates 

                                   

 

The W.Va. Republican Party is preparing an elections complaint for submission today against officers of the W.Va. Democrat Party, their candidates, and others as yet unidentified for making thousands of illegal automated polling calls to West Virginia voters.

The calls (transcribed below from a recording), begin with a polling question about the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia. Reportedly, if the citizen answering registers a preference for Natalie Tennant, the call ends. However, if the voter keys a response for Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, they then are asked a series of automated push poll questions, including ones with defamatory untrue statements about WVGOP State Senate candidates.

 

These calls violate Federal law (47 CFR �64.1200), as they AT NO POINT leave any sort of disclaimer or identification as to the source of the call or who paid for same. That Federal statute states automated calls of this sort  should begin with a disclaimer and end with a phone number for the entity paying for the calls. These calls have neither.

The West Virginia Democrat Party and Chairman Larry Puccio and his staff were implicated in similar illegal undisclaimered phone calls in 2012.
 
While polling calls are legal, and political groups do not have to abide by Federal Do Not Call rules, non-disclaimered political automated calls of this nature are illegal and must be investigated.

Most of the calls leave 614-664-7854 (Columbus, Ohio) or 515-981-6561 (Iowa) as the Caller ID number, which Internet research indicates are numbers used frequently to disperse automated calls in past elections from the Democrat National Committee and their computerized voter file system, NGP-VAN.

These calls are known to have been received in at least seven competitive State Senate districts by voters of all parties, often repeatedly to the same homes.

"It not a surprise that Democrats here are desperate, frantic and lying as they see a national wave coming against their close friend Barack Obama," said West Virginia Republican Party Chair Conrad Lucas. "We expect more dirty tricks from the party of Team Mingo. We intend to pursue every legal avenue to ensure these tactics stop. Guys like Larry Edgell and Don Cookman can't hide their support of Obama and their donations from the personal injury bar. They also don't get to lie to voters on our watch."

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CALL TRANSCRIPT, from Monongalia County, 2nd Senatorial District voter:

As before, it began with would you vote for Tennant or Capito?

 

Then they list  the three candidates, Edgell, Jarrell and Leonhardt with choices 1 - 4.

 

Would you support a candidate who strongly opposes cap and trade that would cripple coal?

 

Would you support a candidate who strongly favors repealing Obamacare?

 

Would you support a candidate who strongly favors investing in public education?

 

Would you support a candidate who promises to take action on EPA?

 

Would you support a candidate who supports Tea Party and supports eliminating social security?

 

If you knew Kent Leonhardt was a Tea Party extremist and supports eliminating Social Security, how likely are you to support him?

 

If you heard an advertisement on radio or TV where the Republican candidate favors groups funded by the Koch Brothers, would you support that candidate?

 

Finished up with some statistics.  Are you a Democrat, Republican, or Independent?  Do you align with Democrat, Republican or Independent?  If Republican, do you consider yourself 1)liberal, 2)moderate, 3)traditional Republican like Jeb Bush and McCain or 4)conservative Rep like Rand Paul

Finished by saying we are done and had no disclaimers.
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Paid for by the WV Republican Party,  

PO Box 2711, Charleston, WV 25301 

Not authorized by any candidate or their committee.
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