George,

Kim Tingley -- or rather, a machine claiming to be Kim Tingley -- called me last week and left a message on my voicemail asking that I vote for him on June 14th. I understand it's difficult to contact voters in person, but personally I would prefer to receive *no* phone call than to receive a phone call from a machine asking for my vote. To my mind this is the second misstep by the Tingley campaign -- the first being the notorious 15-minute poll of several weeks ago (my home was called three times). I would be interested in hearing what others think, but I feel the Tingley campaign continues to misread the community. Retail politics is what works here, and that means person-to-person contact. Florida polling firms and machines that make mass phone calls are not the way to go in Charlottesville/Albemarle. It's an expensive lesson the Tingley campaign is teaching itself.

Jeffrey Rossman (electronic mail, May 24, 2005)

Editor's Note: Automated calls have been used widely by Democrats in statewide races, by the City of Charlottesville and also in Charlottesville by a contestant for American Candidate. I do not recall automated calls being used before in a campaign for the Virginia 57th District House seat.