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McCook Gazette

Candidate apologizes in advance for upcoming 'robocalls'

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

McCook City Council Candidate Mike O'Dell expressed apologies in advance of a voice broadcast, or "robocall" to be placed later this week. Scheduled relatively early in the campaign season, the call will precede the onslaught of phone robocalls to be placed by national campaigns in the last 30 days before the election.

"I don't know of very many people who look forward to receiving automated calls," O'Dell said. "We looked for other ways to gather information on a city-wide scale, and this is the only one that made economic sense."

O'Dell added, "The call addresses important local issues and is voiced by four of our McCook neighbors, so I hope that will generate genuine interest."

The full voice broadcast includes an endorsement message from four former city officials as well as polling and information distribution options. The entire call is expected to take about three minutes. An abbreviated version will be directed at answering machines.

O'Dell concluded, "This is the one and only automated call that I'll be sending out this election cycle. If I interrupt someone's evening meal or favorite television program, please accept my apologies."

Mike O'Dell, 46, is running for a seat on the McCook City Council on a platform that emphasizes economic development, reversal of outmigration and holding the line on taxation.

O'Dell has been a resident of McCook since 1994, is Chairman of the Red Willow Republicans and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration.

More information about the candidate is available at his Web site.

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  • I hate those calls. If you have to apologize in advance perhaps you should not do it. Thats like saying "im sorry im going to run over your foot with my car", then running it over.

    -- Posted by president obama on Tue, Sep 16, 2008, at 12:34 PM
    ! Report comment to editor

  • It is too bad that politicians continue to exempt themselves from Do Not Call law.

    StopPoliticalCalls.org is fighting for the privacy of the American voter.

    1 - Creating a Political Do Not Call Registry

    2 - Testifying in the US Senate about robo calls (Sen. Feinstein's Robocall Privacy Act)

    3 - Forcing states to enforce existing robo call laws (CA, MN, NJ, etc..)

    4 - Getting politicians to take a do not robo call pledge (7 have)

    As I testified at the US. Senate these robo calls are an epidemic and this election cycle "phone spam" and are invading the privacy of All American Voters.

    Our members are taking a stand and saying enough is enough at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org.

    Here is a quote from a member recently:

    "I'm a shift worker, working variable shifts. I depend on my sleep to be able to do my job safely and efficiently. I'm a locomotive engineer. Imagine the disaster were I to fall asleep, operating a freight train carrying hazardous materials in your neighborhood, due to fatigue from being awoken in my middle of the night on a continuous basis during election season. Please stop.."

    Learn more.

    Shaun Dakin

    CEO

    http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org

    A non-profit fighting for the privacy of the American voter

    -- Posted by shimane on Wed, Sep 17, 2008, at 10:12 AM
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  • What's the big rhubarb here? The guy is being polite about it and has promised to just send out one call. Wouldn't it be nice if these senate candidates promised to only call us once?

    Besides, this is local and he might have something to say that we want to know about. I already know as much as I need to about the presidential race, but I don't know nearly enough about the local candidates. I don't see any crime here.

    -- Posted by Husker Jim on Wed, Sep 17, 2008, at 4:57 PM
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  • Husker Jim,

    Do you really think that his 3 min. prerecorded message is going do delve deep into the issues? The polite thing to do is to not call at all. Do you not see that he is apologizing in advance? I still say that if you have to do that, you must question your actions. You would think that in a local election in a town as small as Mccook you could just meet the person and ask him some questions. Better yet, he could put his phone number in the paper and we could call him with questions. Wait, we cant do that Mike Odell is not in the phone book. He is either unlisted, perhaps because he is tired of the phone calls from people like himself. Or he just has a cell phone because he is tired of the phone calls from people like himself.

    -- Posted by president obama on Wed, Sep 17, 2008, at 6:56 PM
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  • My home telephone number is 344-3334. My cell is 695-6397 and my work number is painted on the side of 312 West B Street. My email address is mikeo@swnebr.net and my campaign web site is www.voteodell.com

    Please feel free to contact me with your concerns at any time. I welcome input from all voters and respect the rights of others to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to free political speech. Thank you for respecting mine.

    -Mike

    -- Posted by Mike O'Dell on Fri, Sep 19, 2008, at 6:29 PM
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  • I guess the question I have is, Is an advanced apology really an apology? I was taught that to apologize is to say that you will never do it again. So it would seem that yours is not really an apology since you are still doing it. Perhaps now would be a good time to say your sorry for any poor decisions you might make as a future councilman. That way when people get mad you can say, "hey, I said I was sorry a year ago". I would have had more respect for you if you had just done the robo calls and said nothing. What I would like is an apology retraction since you are not really sorry for the robo calls.

    I dont want to infringe on your free political speech, but when it comes into my home, and interrups my family time then I am going to have an issue with it.

    -- Posted by president obama on Mon, Sep 22, 2008, at 5:33 PM
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