State lawmakers in Annapolis said they are collaborating on a bill that would subject telephone solicitations from political candidates ? so-called “robo calls” ? to the Do Not Call list.
Del. Dan Morhaim, D-District 11, said he plans to introduce the bill in the House of Delegates Monday, aiming to give homeowners a means to opt out of irritating campaign-season phone calls. A significant surge in the number of calls he received, and reported by his constituents, prior to the November 2006 election inspired the bill, Morhaim said.
“Constituents stopped me at the gas station, they stopped me in the grocery store, they said these calls are annoying,” Morhaim said. “Calling people at home is a little like an invasion of privacy, especially when they are at meal time or family time.”
One resident got so fed up with the calls in November, he sued several Republican candidates and organizations ? including former Gov. Robert Ehrlich ? alleging they violate a state law requiring all prerecorded phone calls to include a name and call-back phone number.
A consumer rights attorney and Harford County resident Michael Worsham said he seeking upward of $4,500 in damages. Most of the defendants including Ehrlich have asked the court to dismiss the case, Worsham said, on the grounds that the campaign committees ? not the candidates ? authorized the phone calls.
“This bill would be great,” Worsham said. “There is enough dissatisfaction with the people to just pass a law.”
Morhaim said he was concerned many robo calls last year did not identify who funded them. In addition to a name and number, Federal Communications Commission rules require a caller to identify the entity on whose behalf the call is being made.
