It’s the return of the robo-calls

Robo- calling, one of the most obnoxious tools of 21st century campaigning, has hit the Inland Northwest, thanks to the friendly folks at the Republican National Congressional Committee.

For those who have forgotten the days before the federal “Do Not Call” list pulled the plug on these for most phone solicitors, a robo-call is the unhappy mating of a speed dialer and an electronic message machine. Someone selling aluminum siding, magazines, cheap phone service or almost anything else can record a pitch, flip a switch and the machine can call someone new every few seconds without ever needing a drink of water or cough drop to soothe a scratchy voice.

Robo-calls don’t care if you’re home, as long as your answering machine is on. In fact, given the tendency of people to just hang up on such calls, they may have more luck with someone listening to the whole message on voice mail.

Robo-calls are still legal for political campaigns, because political speech is free speech, even when it is delivered in 20-second spurts from a magnetic tape.

So the committee, which really, really, REALLY wants Republican Cathy McMorris to beat Democrat Don Barbieri for Eastern Washington’s congressional seat, was calling around with at least two messages in the past week.

Robo-caller Nate, a nice-sounding young man who mispronounces Barbieri’s name, insists the district “can’t afford” him in Congress because while Barbieri was chairman of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce, “the organization supported Referendum 51, which sought to raise gas taxes by nearly 40 percent and impose a car sales tax. He also wanted to give local authorities the ability to raise our taxes even higher.”

Robo-caller Dara, an even nicer-sounding young woman who actually knows how to pronounce the opposition’s name, warns that even though Barbieri says he wants to create jobs, when his company merged with a local dairy, “nearly a quarter of Darigold’s workers were laid off. Just like that!” The district needs to elect someone “who doesn’t put profits above jobs,” Dara opines.

The first call is a reference to a 2002 ballot initiative, which failed miserably at the polls, to increase gas taxes by 9 cents over two years. As anyone who ever bought a car in Washington can tell you, the state already has a sales tax on cars; R51 was calling for a surcharge on top of that.

The chamber did back R51 (so did the Spokane City Council, the Washington Association of Realtors and Republican former Sen. Slade Gorton), but attributing that endorsement to Barbieri is a bit of a stretch. The chairman doesn’t decide whether the chamber supports or opposes a ballot measure, the full board does, after studies, said Chamber CEO Rich Hadley. The Spokane Regional Chamber has a long history of supporting measures to fix the streets, regardless of who is chairman, because, well, our streets are pathetic.

The second call is a recycling of one of the GOP committee’s television ads. As Spokesman-Review colleague Megan Cooley reported in an earlier Ad Watch, the merger of Barbieri’s Broadview Dairy and Darigold actually saved jobs by keeping the dairies from going under, consolidating two companies running at half capacity and creating one that operated 20 hours a day. Math note: 20 of 85 employees were laid off, which isn’t quite one-fourth.

And profits above jobs? Only a robo-caller could bemoan that with a straight face for a GOP committee.

As for robo-calls as a campaign tool, the RNCC might want to check out a recent report by the Brookings Institution, which doubts that they’re worth the 5 cents or so spent on each one. Researchers Donald Green and Alan Gerber said that while personal calls to voters can increase turnout by as much as 3 percent, robo-calls “produced no discernable impact on voter turnout.”

Tune in

Eastern Washington residents who want to watch the second U.S. Senate debate between George Nethercutt and Patty Murray live tonight will have to have cable. Or drive far enough west that they’re getting Seattle television.

The debate will run live on KING-TV, which is producing it in the studio. Spokane’s KREM-TV has contributed a reporter for the panel, but not a live prime-time slot on its schedule. The debate will air on Spokane’s Channel 2 at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

But the matchup will be on Northwest Cable News Network live. Turns out NW Cable News shares the building with KING, and is picking up the feed. Check your cable company for their channel, as it varies.

Catch the candidates

Today: 5th District congressional debate, sponsored by the City Forum; 11:45 a.m., First Presbyterian Church, 318 S. Cedar.

Tonight: County commissioner candidates debate on KSPS-TV; 7 p.m., Channel 7.

Thursday: George Nethercutt, Downtown Spokane Rotary; noon, Ridpath Hotel.

Thursday: Patty Murray, Christine Gregoire and other Democratic candidates at the Spokane Labor Rally; 4-7 p.m., Spokane County fairgrounds.

Thursday: 3rd and 6th District state Senate candidates debate on KSPS-TV; 7 p.m., Channel 7.

Friday: 3rd and 9th District 3 state Senate candidates, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce; 7:30 a.m., Spokane Regional Business Center.