Dreaded robocalls used in USATF presidential election
According to posts on the USATF Associations listserve on YahooGroups, Stephanie Hightower’s campaign for president of USA Track & Field is using robocalls to reach potential voters. Jon Krupa wrote the listserve: “This is disheartening. The problem with politics in America is we allow the behaviors to continue and have lost sight of what it means to serve.” An issue being debated: Where did she get the phone numbers? One possibility: usatf.org itself. Its directories include home phones. Stephanie hasn’t commented on this yet, but rival candidate Bob Bowman writes: “Only one candidate is doing this. Neither Dee (Jensen) or myself are involved in this.” Very interesting. It appears that Stephanie is pulling out all stops. Anyone get one of these calls? What do they say? And why bother?
12 Responses
Ms Hightower’s support petition posted on this site mentioned her record of support for racewalking. This claim attracted some derision on the Yahoo! racewalking message board.
For everyone else, the implication is that she knew her claim would have no credibility among racewalkers, but calculated that racewalkers were too few and too isolated to matter.
Those calculations were probably correct, but is this the sort of person you guys want to elect over there?
Quick Silver
Hong Kong
I got one last night during dinner and hung up on it. If someone wants the position badly enough to spend the money that must be involved in getting the numbers and paying for the robocalls it’s not a good sign. No way I’d vote for her now!
I did the same things I do with all calls from numbers I don’t recognize…I didn’t take it! However, the robo left a message, so I skipped to the and deleted it, like I do with all robo’s. I think it was Drossin hawking Hightower again. I’m not going to the convention, so the only place Hightower could have gotten my number is from the USATF membership info.
I am going to the convention and have not received a call – as I am far far off the radar screen – and IF this note generates a call – lemme tell you folks – robocalls make me automatically NOT vote for the candidate who uses them – local, state, national, and
USATF elections. Stupid stupid stupid –
I have received political spam e-mails from each candidate and the Hightower recorded phone call last night. I share my personal contact information sparingly to avoid this type of @#$&.
I do not blame the candidates for utilizing every resource available, I do however blame usatf for making my information available without my permission. This is a breach of confidentiality and needs to be addressed immediately.
USATF’s privacy policy is here:
https://www.usatf.org/about/privacyStatement.asp
It doesn’t explicitly ban use of private info for robocalls. But it doesn’t say it’s OK either.
In a posting, Steve Vaitones of New England USATF wrote:
My call was a Deena Kastor speech of about 2 minutes on how great a supporter and fan of all disciplines of the sport that Stephanie is, though focusing on the elite athlete perspective.
Has anyone been able to record one of these robocalls? If so, please email me ASAP at: adam@thefinalsprint.com
Other than the Kastor speech that Ken received, has anyone received different versions of such a robocall on behalf of Hightower?
Did Hightower endorse the message at any point during the call(s)?
Thanks so much.
– Adam
For two decades I have fought to try to simplify the entry process for USATF sanctioned meets. 90% of our data entry labor (read that directly as a meet expense) could be solved by creating a database from the existing USATF membership list. Think of it, USATF, which I would like to think of as “we” rather than “them,” knows; your name (hopefully you know how to spell it correctly, though the list has lots of typos I could identify), your current address (as of the last time you registered), your phone number, e-mail address, SEX, BIRTHDATE (how could that possibly be used to automatically sort all entrants into the correct age group?).
I guess you could say the way they protect that list is a sore spot with me.
The high security USATF places on that membership list has consistently shot those plans in the foot. USATF considered the list to have commercial value, so all meet-promoting mass mailings were required to go through the national office (for an exorbitant fee, of course) to maintain the list secrecy. Even when, as a local USATF Board Member, I was given access to the list, the version I received was sanitized and I was specifically prohibited from sharing the contents of the list with the other meet managers operating events in my Association (for fear that they could create their own mailing list, allowing them to evade paying USATF for such a service). Under those circumstances, if the USATF membership list were used, USATF itself would have to administer the phone dialer, which I hope would obviously be an improper use and we would assume wouldn’t happen. So someone would have to illegally procure the list.
It would take somebody high up at USATF to be able to get access to that list. For that list to be procured and used for blatantly political purposes would be the highest form misuse under the conditions that have been outlined to me as a USATF administrator. That misfeasance alone should disqualify the perpetrator from higher office and should justify their removal from their current position.
I wrote to Deena Kastor. Late Wednesday night, I got this reply from her:
Thanks for the email. To answer your questions, I wrote a letter in support of Stephanie as president and was asked by someone in her campaign if I would be willing to record my letter for a robocall. I am not being paid in any way for voicing my support for Stephanie, I just think she will be a great leader for USATF. As for the phone calls, I have no idea where the numbers were taken from and I only assume it is from the USATF database. I hope this helps and I hope to see you at the annual meeting in Reno.
Here is Deena’s letter, BTW:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2764891&thread=2764891
Fellow Masters who vote in Reno:
Please vote for Bob Bowman and pressure others in person to vote for Bob.
I received the robocall and listened to every word. I have read the postings on this site from each candidate. It is a no brainer that Bob Bowman is most supportive of the masters program, the best qualified candidate for this administrative position and the most professional, ethical candidate.
As we all sense, support for masters is on the ropes within USATF. I certainly have felt this sentiment from USATF-Hawaii. We need the strongest possible advocates for masters within USATF administrative positions.
Aloha, Jack Karbens
Ed Parrot reports on the USATF Associations listserve today that he’s also received a robocall from 2004 Olympic hurdles champ Joanna Hayes (presumably on behalf of Hightower).
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