Are You Being Robo-Called by Andy Harris?

In the last two days we’ve receive quite a few calls and emails from readers complaining about “robo-calls” from First District Congressman Andy Harris.  Some have even complained that they received two calls in one day.

Indeed, there were two calls that went out Tuesday.  One call was an actual robo-call.  Its purpose was to inform citizens of the toll hike hearing being held tonight in Berlin.  The other call was a “Tele-Townhall”.

What’s a Tele-Townhall?

These are large conference calls.  On Tuesday night Harris held a Tele-Townhall with over 6,200 constituents from the Eastern Shore.  According to Harris Press Secretary Ryan Nawrocki:

This is the most cost efficient means for Andy to communicate with his constituents.  Andy truly cares about how he spends taxpayer dollars.  There aren’t any other means that we’ve found so far where Andy can talk to the people of the First District, but more importantly hear what they have to say and do so in an efficient manner.

Andy tries to do at least one of these every two weeks or so.  It usually starts off with Andy speaking about a particular issue.  The citizens can make comments or ask questions over the phone.  Finally, we usually do a short poll where folks can give their answers via their phone keypad.

Here is one of the e-mails we received:

Do you have any suggestions as to how  I can stop all of the  automated phone calls that I receive from Andy Harris? I got 2 of them just today. I like him and did vote for him, but he is beginning to really annoy me.   I usually get at least  2-3 each week..sometimes, as today, several in one day.   A couple of weeks ago I sent an email to him requesting that he remove my number from his phone base, but still the calls persist.  Unfortunately the Do Not Call list does not include politicians and charities, so do you have any ideas on this subject?

We asked Nawrocki about this as well.  He was sorry that this individual’s email somehow was overlooked.  “We put people on a ‘do not call’ list all the time.  If they would send an email again, or call one of Andy’s offices, I’m sure that they wouldn’t be bothered again.”

Harris’s offices can be found on his US House website or you can call:

Washington, DC 506 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-5311 Fax: 202-225-0254	Kent Island 100 Olde Point Village Suite 101 Chester, MD 21619 Phone: 410-643-5425 Fax: 410-643-5429
Belair, MD 15 East Churchville Road Suite 102B Bel Air , MD 21014 Phone: 410-588-5670 Fax: 410-588-5673	Salisbury 212 West Main Street Suite 204 B Salisbury , MD 21801 Phone: 443-944-8624 Fax: 443-944-8625