Here in New York City we are in full throttle election mode for city offices. Tomorrow is the primary election for Mayor, Public Advocate, City Council, Borough President, etc. It has been both a grueling campaign season and yet lackluster. We have heard all the candidates on commercials, debates, sound bites, and in the last week, robo calls.
Now, the first time I ever heard of a robo call was during the primary campaign between George W. Bush and John McCain in South Carolina. Remember when calls were being made about John McCain's ethnic love child? It was messy and destroyed his chances of becoming President in 2000. It was one of the nastiest smear campaigns up to that point. If facts actually mattered, the child in question was actually John and Cindy McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh. The damage was done and so was he for the first time as a Presidential candidate.
Since then, during every election cycle, the week before election day, we get calls from the campaigns that are automated recorded messages from the candidates, robo calls. This past week, NYC candidates began their calls. Bill DiBlasio has called us at least 5 times a day. Without question his campaign has been the biggest offender in our house. They even called on Rosh Hoshanah. Seriously? You want my vote? That almost ended it for me right then and there. The caller ID's come from all over and say different things. It feels like even the campaigns are trying to trick the receivers with the phone numbers. Some are 917-***-*** or 347-***-****. Others are out of state or out of area. These calls are cold, impersonal, and ineffective. OR maybe I should say that they have the reverse effect. I have been on the fence on DiBlasio but after all the calls all night long, it's turned me off. We've heard from all the campaigns but less intensively. Last night, received my first robo call from Christine Quinn's campaign, in Spanish. Podolsky must sound like a Spanish name somewhere....
Campaign Managers and Consultants, if you can't call me with a real person to speak about real issues, lose my number. I have no interest in your automated calls with your campaign points. I can't be the only constituent who feels that way. Stop it!!!! It doesn't work. It annoys. It turns off.
Sidebars: It was a ton of sports all weekend on this first full weekend of September: baseball, tennis, college football, pro-football. All weekend, all the time. Newsroom season finale, part one aired. Glad there is another episode. Unforgettable concluded last night on CBS. Sad because we were blacked out for most of their summer season. The New York Times Sunday Arts and Leisure had its coveted Fall preview issue. Here's the kicker, Broadway is becoming more like regional theatre with celebrities than ever before. There are so many revivals of classics and non-classics it's painful. Look, I love Shakespeare, O'Neill, Williams, etc. but not at Broadway prices. It makes me sad. Incredible shows to expose your children to but not for the dollar amount. I found it to be a bleak upcoming season. School began today!!! Fall is coming!! If you live in NYC, VOTE on Tuesday, September 10th, even if the robocalls have assaulted you!!
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@DianaPodolsky
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