Restrictions on campaign calls approved

LINCOLN - Voters rankled by campaign phone messages may get some relief during upcoming elections, but some lawmakers are skeptical it will last.

The Legislature gave final approval Tuesday to a bill (LB198) that would restrict to two the number of automated calls each campaign could make each day to a resident. Also, the calls could only be made between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

“I think the people of Nebraska really want us to do something about this nuisance,” Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln, who introduced the bill, said of the so-called robo-calls.

The bill comes on the heels of a controversial campaign tactic used last year in Nebraska that also has been used in other states. Last fall, in his race against eventual winner Adrian Smith, Democratic Congressional candidate Scott Kleeb's offices were flooded with complaints from people upset about receiving repeated, automated phone calls with poor-quality recordings of Kleeb's voice.

Kleeb and his supporters believe that someone recorded a legitimate automated call of Kleeb's targeting voters and then used it to flood some homes with dozens of calls.

Despite political and possibly public support for restrictions on such calls, some lawmakers described the bill as flawed, saying it may stand on shaky legal ground. Last week, Attorney General Jon Bruning issued a legal opinion last week that the bill could violate free-speech rights because it is aimed at one type of speech.

Courts have concluded that limitations on automated-dialing devices are constitutional, but those restrictions pertained to all types of automated calls, not just political messages, the opinion said.

Schimek's bill, says the opinion, “may be more difficult to defend because ... it pertains only to political messages.”

People wanting to sell Twinkies via the phone wouldn't be at all restricted by the measure, said Sen. Tom White of Omaha, an attorney, when arguing the bill is legally vulnerable,

Political speech “should be subjected to the least amount of control,” White said.

But the bill does not regulate content of messages that are relayed, just the placement of a type of call that is more political advertisement than discourse, said Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha.

“I believe it will withstand a court challenge,” Chambers said.

Concern nationally that robo calls are being used to sabotage opposing campaigns has caught the attention of federal officials who are considering restrictions. And Nebraska telecommunications officials may help push for new federal rules following an investigation of what happened during the Kleeb-Smith campaign.