[link|http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061105/REPOSITORY/611050397/1043/NEWS01|http://www.concordmo...50397/1043/NEWS01]

Some of the automated calls begin with messages that suggest they might be from the Hodes campaign: "Hello, I'm calling with information about Paul Hodes." The calls then proceed to give negative information about Hodes on various issues - such as taxes and the prescription drug program known as Medicare - before disclosing that they were paid for by the NRCC. But many people hang up after the first line, believing they've been called by the Hodes camp, said Reid Cherlin, a spokesman for Hodes.

A letter-writer to the Monitor said she had been "bombarded by recorded election messages from Paul Hodes." Marilyn Jewell of Concord wrote that she would be sure to vote for Bass, in part because "he doesn't pester me to death."
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Definitely a dirty trick orchestrated by the jailbird who took out the Dems phone banks with robodialers last election. Might be a silver lining:
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The National Republican Congressional Committee spent nearly $20,000 on the calls last week. Depending on the rate, that could mean more than 300,000 automated phone calls into the Second Congressional District.
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New Hampshire law sets a different standard, allowing live political calls but not recorded ones to residents who are listed on the registry. Republican National Committee member Tom Rath, a former state attorney general, said Friday that he thought the issue was a "complicated legal question" about free speech and the intersection of state and federal laws that could not be resolved quickly.
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At $5k penalty per call plus recoverable damages of $1k per victim on the Do Not Call List, that could be a mighty hefty chunk of change. Hope they make it stick.