SORRY, WRONG NUMBER - U.S. Representative Kirsten Gillibrand recently sponsored a tele-town hall meeting that irked a number of area residents.U.S. Representative Kirsten Gillibrand’s first-ever "tele-town" meeting has devolved into a local controversy over questionable telemarketing tactics used by the first-term Democrat, the Majority Accountability Project (www.majorityap.com) has learned.
According to several sources who independently contacted majorityap.com, a telemarketing firm began telephoning area residents around 6 p.m. on Monday, September 17. A recorded message told whoever answered that a teleconference was being conducted in New York’s 20th Congressional district, and asked if they would stay on the line to take part.
The recorded message informed those who remained they could ask the Congresswoman a question by pressing the pound sign followed by the number three. Doing so would place callers in an electronic queue, and questions would be answered in that order.
But that’s not what Gillibrand claims.
Her office boasted to the Albany Times Union on Tuesday that nearly 3,500 residents took part in the electronic town hall, and that it was area residents who called Gillibrand. Her office told the paper that a telemarketing firm made 30,000 calls over the weekend, telling residents about the town hall meeting, and giving a phone-number they could call to participate.
Gillibrand’s version of events does not coincide with several independent reports.
It is possible that Gillibrand’s office also conducted calls over the weekend; however, no one contacting majorityap.com had received a call until Monday evening at the start of the teleconference.
After being apprised by those who received the calls, and following Gillibrand’s denial that her office had made them, majorityap.com began contacting other residents in the 20th Congressional district. Majorityap.com’s research found two more residents who backed-up earlier claims that it was Gillibrand who made the calls.
They also expressed annoyance that Gillibrand’s calls came during a time that for many working families is dinner hour.
The entire telemarketing program was paid for by taxpayers.
This is not the first time Gillibrand’s office has given false information to the Albany Times Union. In May, majorityap.com reported that Gillibrand was in Europe, holding a fundraiser in London, England, even though she once criticized her opponent for holding an out-of-state fundraiser.
A second event had been listed on Gillibrand’s public schedule, but her office told the Times Union’s state editor, Jay Jochnowitz, that the event - also to take place in London - had been cancelled.
Additional majoritap.com research found that the event had not been canceled, as Gillibrand claimed, but was instead held in Paris, France.
Gillibrand also told the paper that the European fundraisers were informal events organized by friends of the freshman Democrat. But after majorityap.com raised questions over missing expenditure reports from the Paris and London events, Gillibrand’s office admitted it was her campaign’s professional fundraiser that had organized the fundraisers.
Earlier this year, several of Gillibrand’s freshmen colleagues introduced legislation that would "prohibit politically-oriented recorded message telephone calls" from being made to households listed on the national "Do Not Call" registry.
Gillibrand is not a sponsor of that bill.
Way to go MAP!!!
Great job on the Gillibrand phone call story. You actually made things happen. She had to apologize for another fabrication of the truth. Majority Accountability Project is making a difference. Keep up the great work!!