Who’s Behind “Gay” Robo-Calls?

Anonymous, undisclosed robo-calls have invaded a South Carolina Senate district, making national news and sparking a flood of visceral reaction and insider intrigue … or have they?

Could the whole thing be a “set-up?”

No one knows for sure at this point who the calls are targeting, how widespread they are or who they are designed to help or hinder … and of course, no one knows who is behind them.

What we know is that yesterday, questionable automated voice messages were reported in the contentious State Senate race between GOP Rep. Mick Mulvaney and Democrat Mandy Powers Norrell. According to a voter who received one of the calls, they were placed from a “DC Call Center” from the telephone number 202-607-2619, which has been used for calls like this in the past.

The calls – from a fictitious group called the “Alliance for the Advancement of Gays and Lesbians” – encouraged voters to support Powers-Norrell based on her pro-gay, pro-choice stances, and were immediately blamed on Mulvaney.

Reached by phone this morning, Mulvaney said his campaign was “absolutely not” associated with the calls, and was in fact trying to determine who was responsible for them.

“I’ve run two campaigns,” Mulvaney told FITS. “I ran a clean campaign two years ago and I’ve run a clean campaign this year. You’d have to talk to my opponent about negative campaigning.”

“If I find out my own mother did this, I would condemn it and demand that it be stopped,” Mulvaney added. “It is hate-mongering and it is against everything our campaign is about.”

FITSNews has attempted to contact several potential guilty parties this morning to determine who is responsible for the calls, but culpability will likely revolve around where they were delivered – and whether or not they went to Republican or Democratic households.

Clearly, if the calls were widespread in nature – and delivered in conservative, GOP-heavy areas of the district – then speculation would fall on the S.C. Senate Republican Caucus.

Caucus communications director Wesley Donehue told FITS this morning that his organization had nothing to do with the calls, however, Donehue’s previous employer, Warren Tompkins, does have a history of questionable robo-calling.

Having said that, anecdotal reports are that the calls have gone exclusively to moderate and left-leaning voters, which would mean that the real culprit is – ironically – more likely than not on the Powers-Norrell side of the aisle.

Specifically, there are four faces we’d put in this lineup …

First would be the S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus, which has already unleashed some nasty negative attacks against Mulvaney in this race.

When you consider that this story originated on a liberal S.C. website – and was then passed on to a liberal national website – it’s easy to see how the Democrats would gin up a “negative campaigning” story against Republicans in an effort to diminish their own underhanded tactics.

Brilliant strategery, people.

Second on our “suspect list” would be the firm of Richard Quinn & Associates, which has a history of third-party attacks and is employed by the S.C. Trial Lawyers, which is backing Norrell’s campaign. Interestingly enough, Quinn’s online mouthpiece was one of the first “Republican” sites to pick up the robo-call story yesterday evening.

Third, you simply can’t investigate a story like this without at least considering the involvement of legendary political mudslinger Rod Shealy, who has been accused of these same “fake endorsement” robo calls as recently as last year.

As far as we know, Shealy doesn’t have a dog in this fight, however.

Fourth, and finally, we have to ask … did Norrell do this to herself?

It’s not entirely inconceivable, particularly considering that the calls appear to be targeting precisely the sort of moderate-to-liberal voters who would be offended by them.

Norrell has run one of the dirtiest, most deceptive campaigns we’ve ever seen in this state – and finding a creative way to paint her opponent with that same “dirty campaigner” brush during the last week of the race makes sense for her.

We doubt she was foolish enough to directly involve herself in such an undertaking, but it’s not out of the question.

Needless to say, FITS is attempting to secure further details on the originating phone number(s) and caller ID information associated with these calls, as well as the geography and ideology of the individuals who received them.

Anyone with information should e-mail us at info@fitsnews.com.

Oh … and feel free to take our poll and vote for who you think is the most likely culprit …

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