Attorney General Jay Nixon says he was honored to hear from former Presidents Bush and Clinton on the night before last November’s electin, although he wondered why they didn’t speak back to him when he responded. Nixon recently made that observation with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. He has asked the legislature for the second year in a row to expand the state no-call list to block automatically-dialed recorded callssuch as those.
The state Senate has started debating that bill. Senator Kevin Engler of Farmington wants to expand the state no-call list to include faxes, cell phones, and pre-recorded automatically-dialed political messages.
His proposal has some exemptions: calls related to recent business activities, in-person calls asking if a person would listen to a pre-recorded message, and public service agency calls alerting residents to dangers.
Engler says the bill does not infringe on a candidate’s right to campaign, but it does prohibit auto-dialing a number on the state’s no-call list.
(The bill is SS/SCS/SBs 49, 65, 210, 251)
Download Engler’s opening statement from the Senate floor (4:28 mp3)