With the primary election looming tomorrow, voters across Ohio reported receiving repeated robocalls over the weekend from the Republican presidential contenders — especially Mitt Romney, who seems to have zeroed in on Cuyahoga County. A besieged voter in Glenville reported getting five calls in 24 hours Sunday from both Santorum and Romney. A Jewish voter in Pepper Pike got calls from Christian college officials and Tony Perkins of the radical religious right group Family Research Council — urging her to check the FRC website to learn who is the “true conservative.” And a voter in Cleveland Heights received three such calls in a single day — one recorded by Romney himself, one by his wife Ann, and one by anti-abortion activist and former ambassador to the Vatican Mary Ann Glendon. (Also robocalling for Romney: Barbara Bush and Donald Trump).
The interesting thing? All of these voters — and many others who reported getting the calls — are dedicated Democrats who have never voted in a Republican primary.
This brings to mind two questions. What happened to that much-vaunted laser-like Republican voter targeting we were hearing about just a few years ago? And when are we going to get that eagerly awaited robocall from Pat Boone? — Anastasia Pantsios
This article appears in Feb 29 – Mar 6, 2012.