Homophobic robocalls to SLO County voters are disgusting — but that doesn’t make them illegal
Just when you thought local campaigning couldn’t sink any lower — given the ugly accusations appearing in mailers, TV ads and on radio — a barrage of ugly robocalls comes along to skank it up even more.
The caller — purportedly from a white supremacist group — claims to support San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill, who is seeking reelection.
The calls are obviously a hoax: The woman on the line has a fake Southern accent, claims to be from a nonexistent organization associated with the KKK, advocates keeping “perverts” out of local government and urges voters to elect Hill in order to “keep SLO straight again.”
Hill’s opponent in the race for the District 3 seat, Stacy Korsgaden, is a lesbian — a fact that garnered zero negative attention until this call came alone.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office is looking into it, and Korsgaden said she would file a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission and/or Federal Communications Commission to find out who’s behind the ads.
Good. But if past investigations are any indicator, it could take months to learn anything. That’s a long time to wait, given the sickening nature of the offensive calls.
The message is both homophobic and racist, leading Korsgaden to question whether this could constitute a hate crime.
If not, it’s time that California lawmakers considering making it one.
It’s also time to better enforce laws already on the books.
Robocall rules
The California Public Utilities Commission requires all robocalls to begin with a live operator who states the nature of the call and requests permission to play it.
But of course there are loopholes: The rules don’t apply to calls that originate out of state. Also, if the call recipient has a “relationship or understanding” with the caller, there’s no need to obey the rule.
There also are federal rules. For one, the Federal Communications Commission does not allow political robocalls to be made to cell phones.
Another loophole: They can be made to land lines. They also can be made to cell phones, with prior consent of the recipient. (Since the robocalls in the District 3 race went to San Luis Obispo County cell phones users who had not given prior consent, that appears to violate the federal regulation.)
In other words, robocallers manage to skirt the rules.
“Although the PUC says political robocalls ‘must follow relevant state and federal laws,’ this is obviously a sham,” writes Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus.
Still, political robocallers have been hit with some hefty fines.
For example, a telemarketing firm is facing a $10 million fine from the FCC over robocalls it placed before the 2018 primary election.
The calls falsely accused state Assembly candidate Phil Graham of sexual misconduct, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. Graham went on to lose the election — and blames the false accusations.
The fine, by the way, has nothing to do with the content of the calls.
“The FCC doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have the authority to police truthfulness in political campaigns,” the FCC chairman stated at the time.
Rather, the penalty stemmed from the fact that the calls were “spoofed” — they did not originate from the number that showed up on caller ID.
So here’s where things stand: It’s not illegal for robocalls to tell outrageous lies about people running for political office. But it is illegal to lie about where the calls originate.
Whether existing rules will come back to bite whoever is responsible for the awful robocalls in the District 3 race remains to be seen.
If not, it’s time to demand the state that either better enforce existing laws or make some new ones.
Fake robocalls are a disgrace. They do a huge disservice not only to the candidates, their families and their supporters, but also to voters forced to wade through the garbage.
For now, the best thing to do if you receive one: Hang up as fast as you can.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 12:32 PM.