Ted Wheeler SPAM's Multnomah County
Since when is using a list of people who are subscribed to a newsletter that keeps them current on Multnomah County business, kosher to use for a large unsolicited email campaign for a person running for Mult. County Chair? We should ask Ted Wheeler.
Late last night I received an email from Ted Wheeler's Campaign for Multnomah County Chair (as many of you may have as well). It seems as if the reach of this email was pretty broad.
So this morning when I woke up I had more than 20 emails from other people on this email list who were demanding to be taken off the list as it is SPAM. Instead of the email saying something like 'If you would like to remain on this list click here' -- it was the opposite.
It is completely innapropriate of Wheeler. While it is legal for Wheeler to access that information via a 'public records request' (BTW we know it was at least 11k email addresses), he violated the trust and privacy of the very people he is asking to vote him into office.
This is a man who claims he is running for office to bring credibility and trust to Multmomah County and yet, he has demonstrated today that he is willing to exploit public information for his own personal advantage.
Excerpts from these emails include:
Dear Mr. Wheeler:
Your unsolicited campaign message and your assumption that you can be cavalier with my privacy has cost you my vote.
1) I did not give anyone permission to share my name and contact information with you.
2) I did not subscribe to your list, nor did I allow anyone to do so on my behalf.
3) I do not appreciate being contacted in this way or being told that I have been added to someone's political list without my consent.
Remove me from your mailing list immediately!
I did not give anyone permission to share my name and contact information with you. I did not subscribe to your list, nor did I allow anyone to sign me up on my behalf. I do not appreciate being contacted in this way and being told that I am added to someone's political list without my consent.
Remove me from your mailing list immediately.
One would then ask, "How the hell did the Wheeler Camp get all of our email addresses?".
So I called Barbara Willer, Ted's campaign manager. I asked her how my email got on this list. She said that they did a 'public records request' and these emails came from Multnomah County. Specifically from Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn's "Linn Line", a newsletter that Diane sends out to people who opt-in to the list. The "Linn Line" is meant to keep citizens of Multnomah County up-to-date on the happenings of the county - it is in no way a reelection tool.
That says nothing about the fact that this guy has a lot of nerve exploiting the bitter taste of the campaign loss last year that is still left in mouths of many gay Portlanders for his own advantage.
The truth is that Ted Wheeler has never and will never do have of what Diane Linn has done for gay Oregonians and for him to posture as if he would should be seen for what it is: nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy.
So how is it that Ted Wheeler's camp is able to do a public info request and then in turn use that information for his campaign? It's dirty. And he needs to stop courting the 'gay vote' and gays need to stop thinking that he is a good candidate simply because of the whole Multnomah County marriage issue.
Ted Wheeler's family got rich off timber money. His family's foundation gives a ton of money to extreme conservatives and their causes including anti-gay causes. Let's hope gay portlanders don't buy his BS.
Posted by Bryan Harding
This entry was posted
on Friday, January 20, 2006 at 1:56 PM.
Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.
ByBryan--
He didn't violate CAN-SPAM. There's a specific exemption for political communications. (After all, it was members of Congress who wrote the law.)
That said, I find it amusing that just days after I posted an article about exactly this kind of problem over at Politics & Technology - someone right here at home does it.
By
And, as I wrote there, when you blast out email to people who don't want it - you're just being inconsiderate.
You may also be harming your technical ability to mail to people who DO want your email.
Now that AOL is up to blocking 1.2 billion spams a day, they're being ruthless. Same goes for most of the rest of the big email systems.
By
Hmmm...and just when I was thinking about interviewing Wheeler to find out more about him.
By
Wheeler's mass emailing sure annoyed the hell out of me - as did the numerous other emails I received from those who accidently responded to everyone with a reply to the return email address (can't really fault them for what happened). I don't know about the legality of what Wheeler did, but I reported the email to both the state and county elections offices - and made sure that Diane Linn got a copy as well.
By
Listen. I have worked in email marketing for government and public companies for over 10 yearrs. The CAN SPAM act is written with the following things in place.
1. Any Goverment body can email anyone they want, when they want and what they want. (imagine that they wrote the law)
2. Anyone has the ability to email anyone once as long as they has a valid email address that can accpet return emails, a physical mailing address in the email so that those that want to be removed from the list can contact and not respond by email, and if those people do not opt in on the first email, they cannot email them again. A little loop hole in the law that really helps the spammers.
3. No matter if you have an opt in relationship (time stamp, date stamp, IP address stamp, webpage opt in from stamp) spam can be whatever someone perceives it to be. You could feel that your Aunt Millie that sends you emails of "funny" jokes every day is spam and report her, or report someone like Pottery Barn (that you opted in for) as spam. Perception is everything.
So no matter what, here is what is wrong.
1. No existing business or opt in relationship
2. He is not a government body so he does not fall under the loophole
3. He is sending email to a list of people that signed up for the email news of his political polar opposite.
I hope that people take the action to submit him to abuse.google.com and spamcop.net, spamhaus.com and other blacklists as this action was really bottom of the barrel.
I am a republican and he might have had my vote, but not anymore.
Ted, take it up a notch and build some credibility behind your campaign.
By
Would you please post more information about Wheeler's family foundation? He's beginning to seem like a real wolf in "family-friendly" sheep's clothing.
By
We will post more information in the coming weeks reagarding Wheeler's family and their 'expenditures'. We've got a bit of time until the primary. Wheeler is NOTHING BUT a wolf is sheeps clothing. He is not what we need in office.
By
I've known Ted Wheeler for years, and know his father much better. I'm a very liberal Democrat, was a Business Agent for the Carpenters Union, and did a fair amount of work with the Oregon State Legislature. I'd like to address the prejudices, the contempt prior to investigation, I found on this site.
Ted's father runs the Wheeler Foundation. He does indeed give to some really, really conservative causes. He also gives to many, many organizations which support women, children and families. Personally he is quite generous to many people-oriented groups.
Ted's father and I do not repeat not talk politics. At all. Last week I mentioned Dick Cheney, and it almost deteriorated into a fist fight.
Ted is not his father, does not practice his father's politics, doesn't believe them. Socially, Ted is as liberal as I, and that's liberal. I have never talked with Ted about gay rights, never saw a need. Ted is about people. And as tolerant a person as I have ever met.
Given how much spam there is, it doesn't make much sense to see so much intolerance and willingness to judge others based upon scanty information.
Please offer others what you seek, and it will happen.
Thanks,
Corky Corcoran
By
Yes, but isn't Ted a Director of the family foundation that has contributed money to extremely conservative - and some anti-gay - organizations? And hasn't Ted Wheeler been a Republican most his life and just gone "liberal" at a politically opportunistic moment (i.e. a time when the opposing politician, Diane Linn, is taking a lot of heat for standing up for gays)? How long has Wheeler been a Democrat?
I understand that Ted is your friend and you want to stand up for him, but maybe it's time to try to be objective. I have to say, the "wolf in sheep's clothing" image seems to be a bit fitting - especially when his campaign strategy so far has been based on just a lot of opponent-bashing. AND pandering to homophobes by not-so-subtley highlighting the fact that Diane Linn's team legalized gay marriage "behind closed doors." I looked at his site, and frankly I was offended that it kept making references to that event, because I know exactly who he's pandering to. He won't get my vote.
Katharine S.
By
Katharine S. you raise excellent points! I'm glad to know someone out there is really digging into the facts of the matter. There is just one thing, Wheeler is not even a Democrat. He's an Independent! Wolf, wolf, wolf.
A
By
Well, Katherine S., you and anonymous win. Keep your prejudices, I promise Ted isn't. And remember, that demanding tolerance and understanding from a larger society while not offering it is futile.
Frankly, I'm delighted the gay folks I've lived with, worked with, laughed with and cried with do not share your prejudices.
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