The Zeller campaign has put out a press release accusing the Reed campaign of making back-to-back "Vote Zeller" robocalls to annoy Zeller supporters.
I don't know whether this is true, but if it is, I'd be surprised. I'm also surprised that Reed is running any negative ads. (The ads aren't negative against Zeller, but they do attack Democrats.)
As the prohibitive favorite, Reed should be completely positive.
The Zeller press release is included after the break.
Tom Reed's Dirty Halloween Trick
Victor, NY- Despite numerous pledges from Tom Reed to run a positive campaign; perhaps as a sign of things to come, he's already breaking his promises. The Reed campaign has paid for thousands of automated calls, called "robo dials" to contact voters in the waning days of the election.
Yesterday, voters both Republican and Democrat received calls purporting to be from the Zeller campaign asking them to vote for Matt Zeller. The only problem? Voters had to contend with four calls, back-to-back-back in hopes of annoying voters into supporting Reed or staying home on Tuesday.
"When they know they can't win on the issues, politicians will resort to almost anything to try and win. He may say he's not a career politician, but he certainly is acting like one," said Chris Rackl, campaign manager for Zeller for Congress.
Said Zeller, "Personally, I'm disappointed. Amidst all the negativity voters are subjected to when trying to make an informed decision, I was heartened that both Tom and I were able to run positive issue based campaigns. We definitely disagree on a number of issues, but we both stayed positive and played by the rules. I expected more from him."
Added Rackl, "Reed's dirty trick is backfiring. We've received number calls from Republicans complaining about all of the robo dials, and as soon as the voters have heard they weren't from us, they're immediately angry Tom Reed would stoop so low."
The Zeller Campaign also noted the only calls they've commissioned feature Matt Zeller reminding voters to remember to vote twice.
Comments
He must be scared...no campaign goes negative when they're up big. We may be in for a surprise come Tuesday night.
Yawn....
This is stupid. So, let me get this straight. Zeller wants us to believe that with over a double digit lead, Reed is making calls for his opponent. I've been very disappointed at this guy. Honestly, I'm not going to even vote. Maybe next time they will choose someone better like Nachbar or Wilmont.
What makes you think its a double digit lead? That Siena poll is well over a month old, happened before either candidate went on TV, and since then Siena took so much criticism for not including likely voters, that they changed their whole methodology.
If TV had no impact on races, there wouldn't be billions of dollars spent each election year. Maybe I'm wrong, but think that TV and something like a dozen debates had no effect whatsoever seems pretty unlikely
1. It is a Republican District
2. It is Republican Year
3. Tom Reed has not done anything to make himself look silly.
4. Two years ago, at the peak of Obama's popularity and at the depths of the hatred of George Bush, Eric Massa, the ultimate campaigner, beat Randy Kuhl, the ultimate bore by only a couple points.
5. It is a done deal
The point of this article is that Reed is acting like a politician that isn't acting like this is sewn up as you seem to think. I doubt a campaign would be stupid enough to make up an accusation like this. I'm a Democrat in Corning with a good voting history and I got 4 calls all right after each other telling me to vote for Zeller. I got a call maybe an hour or two later with Matt Zeller's voice telling me to vote twice and where the race is on the ballot. It also said something about his military service.
The Zeller campaign has been vastly outraised this election, it wouldn't make any sense to pay for five robo calls to me. Much more likely? The one with Matt Zeller's voice was legit. The four I got earlier were not.
I don't know if it'll be close or not. Like some said above, there haven't been any polls in forever. I do know that guys that are confident they'll win in a landslide don't get negative or resort to these kinds of tricks.
Maybe it is a Zeller set up
http://www.stargazette.com/article/20101031/NEWS01/10310390/1113/29th-Di...
This is stupid. Why would the Reed campaign make calls FOR Zeller. If they were going to play dirty they would make calls bashing Zeller and then just "forget" to use a disclaimer.
What do you mean why would they do it? People hate robo calls....do it four times and they'll get pissed. Pissed enough to change their vote or stay at home is another story, but hey, I never said it was a good strategy
Maybe Zeller's people did the calls in an effort to set up Reed. - Democrats have a history of dirty tricks in the 29th.
That doesn't make any sense - why risk pissing off possible voters just to try to make Reed look conniving? No campaign is going to risk their chance of potential votes to possibly make their opponent seem "mean".
Also, Reed wouldn't put out a robo call bashing Zeller because everyone would instantly think it was his campaign and it would be too hard for the his campaign to deny it since it is a typical attack move. Instead, they decided to secretly piss people off by 1. calling them robotic-ally, 2. calling them so frequently 3. making the campaign appear to be incompetent.
The case of the mystery robo-calls. It says something that this has been the only interesting facet of the 29th campaign in weeks now. A minor dust-up at best, but since we have nothing else to talk about, I'll play...
Couldn't have come from Reed. He has run a tightly disciplined campaign of not saying or doing anything that could get him in trouble. Reed's entire campaign strategy has been to keep his head down and ride the GOP wave into office. Why would he change that approach now in the last 72 hours of the campaign? "Rogue" operatives are not to be found in the 29th this season. Wasn't Reed.
Unlikely to have come from Zeller, since (a) he has no money, and (b) even though Zeller comes across as a bit goofy sometimes, he's not stupid, and running 4x robocalls to the same households would qualify as that. But, having said that, this appears to be a really bad robo calling effort, maybe one operating on a shoestring and cheap. That's why I put an "unlikely" on it.
More likely, someone friendly with Zeller is trying to "help him out" and put a few bucks into an amateur hour outfit, hence the lack of a tag line and not taking out dups from the call list. That's my vote. Much ado about nothing, but its all we've got.
Now the real question -- will Zeller disappear, like that woman who ran against Amo (can't even remember her name) post-election, or will he hang around and start his 2012 campaign all over, Massa-like? Massa had a disability pension from the Navy, which Zeller does not have, so he'll have to find a job. Maybe one of those "green" jobs he keep talking about.
You all can speculate and speculate, but come election day you're in for a really big surprise.
It's not like it would be unprecedented for Republicans in this district to use Robo Calls to try and suppress support for their opponent. Remember Kuhl sent out robos at like 4am telling people to vote for Massa.
Maybe Reed didn't pay for them out of his warchest like the campaign manager says...but it seems like he worded his answer very carefully. Sounds like the NRCC paid for them so Reed could keep his hands clean.