[Mpls] Campaign law questions

[Tim Bonham]

>Third, I have an unlisted phone number.  I simply never give it out.
>I am a DFL delegate but never gave my phone number to the DFL.   Now I
>did call the Mayor's Office to ask about Rybak's mailing that he did
>back in January.  That is the only place I can think his campaign
>could have gotten my phone number.  Is it legal for the Mayor to
>"harvest" phone numbers from people who call him for legitimate city
>purposes and use them for campaign purposes?
>. . .
>Corinne Becker
Phone numbers are easily available online.  Published numbers are very 
easy, unlisted are a bit harder to find, and often are not free.  But still 
available.

Searching on your name, the second site I visited told me there was an 
unpublished one for Corrine Becker at <your address>, which was available 
if I would pay for it.  So it's not hard to find.

Political campaigns, like commercial businesses, often hire someone to 
clean their address list, including verifying/updating phone numbers.  It's 
a pretty standard process; I'd expect the Rybak campaign did this.

Harvesting them one-by-one from calls to City Hall would take way too much 
manual effort to be cost effective.  And saving the numbers of people who 
called to complain about the Mayor's action, as you did, would be 
especially conter-effective.

So it's quite likely that the Rybak campaign just had a mailing firm do a 
standard cleanup & update on their list, and got your phone number that way.

Tim Bonham, Ward 12, Standish-Ericsson