It's a political candidate, calling again. This is sewious! And also why caller I.D. was invented

There’s this little senate race going on in Massachusetts right now, maybe you’ve heard of it?  Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is running against state Senator Scott Brown for the U.S. Senate seat left empty when Ted Kennedy died last year.  Ring any bells? 

How about this, does this jog your memory?

*Ring, ring*

*Ring, ring*

*Ring, ring.  Ring, ring. Ring, ring. RING, RING.*  OMG, make the darn telephone stop RINGING.

How about now? 

If you are a Massachusetts resident and you were home for any amount of time this weekend, chances are you answered your phone no less than five times (and let’s face it, probably much more) only to be met with another recorded plea from someone asking you to vote for Coakley or Brown.  Or maybe you stopped answering your phone all together.  Who could blame you?  The amount of calls was ridiculous.  Things got so silly in our house that my kids started singing that song from the Wonder Pets, "The phone, the phone is ringing.  This is SEWIOUS." However, I was not prepared to teach my kids that sometimes not answering the phone because you're avoiding a call is a good thing to do.  Thanks, candidates!

Sure they started out well-intentioned - Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, anonymous voices on the other end of the line pushing their candidate, the candidates themselves.  Then they started to get personal - Brown’s daughter, Curt Schilling, attack ads, calls about the attack ads.  Then they got downright offensive, to me anyway.  And I’m thinking specifically about the prerecorded “poll” asking me questions that got my blood boiling and had me screaming at the phone, including ones like do I support the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.

Um, leading much?

After a Twitter conversation with other Mass residents it seemed that some areas were getting more Coakley calls and others, like where I live, were getting more calls from Brown’s camp.  I’m very interested to hear who called you the most.  I’m taking an informal poll, one that doesn’t ask if you support raising taxes (no, but I support National Healthcare, thank you very much).

Politics aside, my opinion, the opinion of one person these phone calls were trying to reach, is they were far too numerous to do any good.  Instead, they really turned me off.  Isn’t it bad enough that while watching the Today show one morning last week I saw six, SIX, commercials for Coakley and Brown in a row?  Yes, yes it is bad enough.

Tomorrow the residents of Massachusetts get to cast their vote for who they want in the U.S. Senate.  But more important, the phone calls, the pollsters, the TV commercials and talk of that damn pickup truck will all go away.  Regardless of your political leanings, I think we can all come together and agree that that is a wonderful thing.

Comments

[MommyNamedApril]

oh dear, we get the energy crisis and conservation people calling us several times a day here - but thankfully, no political candidates!

[Major Bedhead]

I wish I could take out a restraining order against Martha Coakley. The amount of calls I get from her are bordering on harassment.

[Dorene]

I have no idea who called more because I didn't answer the phone. Not once. I love caller id almost as much as I love my TiVos.

[cate]

It is driving me out of my mind. seriously. I feel sorry for people who live in Iowa, if this is what they go through.

Interesting data point: my husband and I are both registered independents. He keeps getting Scott Brown stuff in the mail, while I get the Martha Coakley stuff. Random?

[margalit]

I guess there is something wrong with me because the robocalling cracks me up. Even with caller ID, you don't know who is calling, and you pick up the phone and it's Barak Obama. Or Bill Clinton. Tonight it was Vicky Kennedy.

We haven't gotten all that many calls. Tonight we've had 3 and all were for Coakley. I think Brown fans must know that calling MY house might be a big and foul mouthed mistake. I LOATHE the Playgirl Playmate. LOATHE HIM. He's a whiny dope that doesn't like women. I'd vote for Lyndon Larouche over Brown.

You got push polled, which isn't legal OR fair. And it was Brown 's campaign. Figures.

[Fairly Odd Mother]

I'm a registered Dem, so I think that's why Scott Brown's camp knows not to call here. It's been all Coakley, all day. I cannot wait until tonight when my phone goes silent again.

My sister got Obama's call and hung up on him and then said, "OhMiGosh, I just hung up on the president". You don't get to say that much.

[Christine Sierra]

Between the pro-life calls and illegal polls pushing anti-gay sentiment, I wondered if they even looked at the resident's party affiliation before calling them.

I used to work in the business that provided lists to marketers and shame on all of them for abusing the right to call simply because they were political campaigns and NOT held to the same do-not-call standards as businesses.

I could go on and on and on so I will stop. And just vote because the rest of the country is watching us.

[T with Honey]

I put a special message on our answering machine when it was time for the primaries. It stated that we have resorted to screening all phone calls because of the ridiculous volume of campaign and poll calls we were getting. It didn't stop the phone from ringing but ignoring the phone gave me a little more sanity.