From the NY Daily News (http://nydn.us/H5mCqr)
Michael Grimm Robocalls…Saratoga Springs?
Kyle Hughes, a reporter with NYSNYS News in Albany, tweeted earlier this week that he was surprised to get a robocall from Grimm’s congressional office.
“I never lived in Brooklyn. I’ve been there. Been to Staten Island too. But I live in Saratoga Springs, 35 miles north of Albany,” the journo said.
The call, to his home landline, talked about a teleconference town hall meeting Grimm was hosting, he said.
“My wife is a Democrat and I am a ‘blank.’ As a reporter, I sign up on a lot of political websites; maybe that’s how I got on their list,” Hughes said.
He wasn’t the only one.
Maggie Haberman of Politico tweeted that she got a call too: “My Brooklyn household just got a tele-town-hall call from Rep. Mike Grimm, whose district I don’t live in.”
House ethics rules forbids members of Congress from using taxpayer money to pay for mass mailings or robocalls outside their districts. Members are specifically reminded of the ban in redistricting years.
The Daily News gave Grimm’s office both reporters’ landline phone numbers Thursday (with the journos’ permission) to track down how each landed on the call lists.
A spokeswoman for Grimm said they hired a firm which buys lists of addresses of registered voters and whatever phone number is attached.
In the Hughes case, his 518 phone number was somehow attached to a woman living on Grayson Street on Staten Island. In Haberman’s case, her number was linked to a woman on 89th St. in Brooklyn.
“We are only targeting people within our district,” the spokeswoman said, noting both addresses were within Grimm’s current district. “We are very aware these are paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
Source: http://nydn.us/H5mCqr
