Bill putting political robo messages on No Call list passes panel

A House panel approved a bill that would ban campaigns from contacting people on the state’s No-Call list with automated political phone messages.

Rep. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, said the bill is meant to put a “No trespassing” sign on phone lines of people who have blocked their numbers to other telemarketers.

“This issue is not about free speech,” Higdon said. “This issue is about no-call protection … This is about privacy and the consumers’ ability to control their privacy.”

The measure passed the House Labor and Industry Committee Thursday morning 13-2 with one pass.

Higdon has suggested in recent sessions various versions of bills aimed at curtailing so-called political robo calls in which candidates or high-profile supporters record a message that is then dialed out to voters.

An early draft of Higdon’s bill this year would have required groups or campaigns that use robo calls to identify who paid for the message. That has become an issue when anonymous groups, such as one that made calls criticizing Democratic state Sen. Kathy Stein during last fall’s race in Lexington, to lob attacks with little to no accountability.

But Higdon removed that disclosure provision when he changed the bill, much to the chagrin of several lawmakers, such as Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger, who hinted he might push to put that measure back in as amendment.

Robo calls have been a source of annoyance to some voters in recent campaigns. A computer snafu allowed calls to go out late at night to several thousand Republican voters on behalf of Anne Northup’s 2007 run for the Republican primary for governor.

Rep. Rick Nelson, D-Middlesboro and the chairman of the Labor & Industry Committee, joked that his favorite University of Kentucky basketball coach has been Joe B. Hall. But he heard the voice of Hall, a Democrat, on his answering machine and phone a little too often in recent elections stumping for candidates.

“We all know that robo calls typically, in the heat of a campaign, are not used to inform people, they are used to inflame people,” said Rep. Tim Firkins, D-Louisville. “Anything we can do to bring some control over that, I think we ought to do it.”

At least two lawmakers expressed concern that Higdon’s bill might make campaigns expensive if they have to pay for the No Call list.

- Ryan Alessi