Robbie Wills: Attack of the Robo Calls!!!

By Speaker Robbie Wills

(Note: Steve has graciously allowed me to post on Under the Dome during the legislative session, so I'll be checking in from time to time. Of course, the views expressed here may not reflect the views of the blog's owner, but that's ok too! [Steve Edit: yeah, they do] More can be found at my website www.robbiewills.com Thanks! Rep. Robbie Wills, Speaker of the House)

Well, that didn't take long. Apparently the tobacco lobby has unleashed the predictable and dreaded "automated phone calls" on poor, unsuspecting House and Senate members in an effort to inundate legislators with "calls from back home" opposed to the cigarette tax.

See, most lobbyists will tell you the most effective people to persuade a member are that person's constituents. The more calls a lawmaker gets opposed to an issue (any issue) the more likely that lawmaker will be swayed to vote "no." So, the name of the game is to generate the perception of a groundswell of opposition. It used to be that grassroots organizations would use good old fashioned (and effective) techniques like phone trees, letter writing campaigns, etc. to accomplish this goal. Nowadays, with auto-dialing technology and demographic microtargeting, an outfit simply hires (a) a telemarketing firm and (b) industry-generated consumer data, and wham, bam, you got yerself a grassroots groundswell made to order. Tobacco companies, like any other consumer-driven industry, have invested heavily in direct marketing and customer identification. In short, they know who buys smokes on a regular basis. They provide this to the telemarketing folks who autodial numbers of likely smokers. If they get an answering machine, they leave a prerecorded message urging the listener to call their legislator and tell them to vote no. If someone picks up, they are connected with an operator who tells them all about this tax increase and then asks "would you like to be connected with your state representative?" After being worked into a rolling boil by the telemarketer, the consumer, of course, says "well heck yeah!!" Next thing you know, the legislator's published phone number is ringing with an angry constituent calling up their elected official because they are madder than a wet hen about this cigarette tax increase. Pretty slick.

So today, less than 48 hours after I suggested the House consider raising the cigarette tax and less than 24 hours after Gov. Beebe specifically asked for a 56 cent increase, members were swamped with dozens of phone messages urging us to vote against the cigarette tax. My mailbox only holds 20 voicemails and it is now full. (Please take me off the list. I'm not budging). I began to get skeptical when the first "vote no" caller called me "Senator Mills." A later message said something like "the man that forwarded me to you said..." Later, a member shared with me that a caller actually named the tobacco manufacturer that had placed the autocall and forwarded them to the lawmaker's phone.

I'm not suggesting these are sleazy, unethical calls. This is politics, and it's a full-contact sport. I am suggesting this is the type of tactic you have to resort to when you are afraid you can't win on the merits. The reality is Arkansas is spending hundreds of millions of dollars treating smoking related illnesses. Each smoker in Arkansas accounts for, on average, $1,300 apiece each year in additional healthcare costs to the state. The money the state spends treating smokers would pay for a Trauma System, Community Health Centers, UAMS/NWA, in-home care for seniors, etc. many times over. The tobacco tax would have to be $7 a pack for the state to break even. This is the reality of this issue. The robocall-generated perception of grassroots oppostition to this ambitious and bold healthcare proposal may momentarily give legislators pause, but facts are stubborn things.