Republicans suspect scheme behind phone calls

A rash of telemarketer-type phone calls asking area residents to voice concerns about state budget cuts may be part of what Republican lawmakers call a scheme to drum up false support for Gov. Bob Holden's budget proposal.

The Southeast Missourian received phone calls Wednesday and Thursday from callers from throughout the region who were asked to voice their opposition to the budget cuts.

The somewhat befuddled callers were then transferred to the Southeast Missourian, where they promptly stated they were against the cuts.

The incidents are similar to those Republican legislators have been complaining about for several weeks now: a high volume of transferred phone calls from constituents who were instructed to state their displeasure with the cuts to education funding.

The Springfield News-Leader in Springfield, Mo., reported last week that Republicans in the House of Representatives have been targeted by telemarketers who tell constituents about budget cuts to education funding, then offer to connect them with legislators to complain.

Some representatives are receiving as many as 85 calls a day. According to the News-Leader, the Coalition to Protect Education and Healthcare, a group of citizens who banded together in May to lobby against budget cuts, is responsible for at least a portion of the calls.

Coalition representatives use voter lists and a phone bank established by the Service Employees International Union to call constituents in Republican lawmakers' districts. Phone calls to the coalition's field director, Alison Schwartz, were not returned Thursday.

Although the group claims to be nonpartisan, House Majority Floor Leader Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said the phone calls support the agenda of Holden, a Democrat.

"They're trying to generate support that really isn't there," Crowell said. "I don't know why they're doing it, but they're being disingenuous."

Rosemary Mondale of Fredericktown, Mo., received a phone call Thursday afternoon from a man who identified himself as a representative of a group against budget cuts to education.

The caller informed Mondale of cuts that were being made to the local school district, and asked if she was opposed to the cuts.

"I said yes, and he asked if I would go on record as saying that and then he tried to transfer me," Mondale said.

The caller unsuccessfully tried to transfer Mondale four times before she was sent to the Southeast Missourian.

"It's very strange," Mondale said. "He kept coming back on the line and saying, 'I'll try another one,' when he couldn't transfer me, and then finally it rang and I got the newspaper phone directory."

The coalition maintains a Web site that lists members such as the Missouri PTA, Salvation Army and labor affiliates, and also offers an anti-budget cut petition that bears the names of 970 residents from throughout Missouri.

The Springfield News-Leader contributed to this story.

cclark@semissourian.com

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