Robocalls evolve for Santa Rosa City Council race

Candidates for Santa Rosa City Council are trying out new telephonic techniques to inexpensively interact with voters while complying with local rules governing robocalls.

Under new regulations passed by the city in May, automated political campaign calls for or against local candidates or issues must give people a way to opt out of future calls.

Candidates are complying with those rules, but they’re also using the opportunity to give voters other avenues to engage directly with them.

Ashle Crocker, the first candidate to run robocalls this year, used them to introduce herself and invite voters to take part in upcoming live teleconferences. She also invited people by email using addresses obtained from the county registrar of voters.

Such “telephone town halls” or “tele-forums” are common for national or statewide office holders, but are new campaign tools for Santa Rosa, said Nick Caston, Crocker’s campaign manager.

“It’s using technology that’s been around, but using it as a unique way to try to talk to a large chunk of voters,” Caston said.

The two half-hour forums Crocker has held to date saw 70 to 80 participants each with little overlap between the audiences, Caston said. That’s a very effective way to reach voters when compared to how many conversations a candidate can have making individual telephone calls or walking precincts, which she is also doing, Caston said.

A forum held Thursday evening featured Crocker, a local land-use attorney, delivering a summary of why she was running and her qualifications. This was followed by a live question-and-answer session that hit on issues such as affordable housing, infill development and the City Council discord.

Tom Schwedhelm, the retired Santa Rosa police chief, ran a robocall when he launched his campaign last month. After first asking voters not to hang up, the recording included a quick introduction followed by something unique - asking voters if they wanted to receive a direct call from Schwedhelm and if so when.

About 200 people requested a direct call back, and Schwedhelm, who also gave out his personal cellphone number, says he has gotten through about half of the list to date.

“I saw this as an opportunity to provide more information,” Schwedhelm said. “Some of the calls have been 15, 20 minutes long, and I enjoy that.”

While informative for voters, recent candidate forums limit answers to 60 seconds or less, which makes it challenging to discuss complex issues like homelessness in a substantive way, he said.

The questions people ask during phone calls also help him decide which issues he needs to better understand as a candidate, he said.

This is not the first campaign cycle using robocalls to gather feedback from voters.

Veteran political consultant Herb Williams, who is working with Schwedhelm, conducted what he called a “robo-survey” in 2012 for restaurateur Don Taylor’s campaign. The call asked voters what they thought of the idea of free parking downtown and enjoyed a high feedback rate, said Williams, a strong advocate for robocalls as a less expensive way to reach voters compared to mailers.

“I like the engaging ones where people get to participate,” Williams said.

Not all candidates are embracing robocalls as an outreach strategy. While he hasn’t ruled them out, Curtis Byrd said he hasn’t done any and doesn’t have plans to.

“We’re doing it the old-fashioned way,” Byrd said, stressing that he’s knocked on 4,000 doors so far. “I think we’re out-walking everyone else.”

Chris Coursey has pledged not to make robocalls at all, saying he thinks they’re annoying. Instead he’ll be knocking on doors, sending mailers, calling in person, or and attending community events.

But that doesn’t mean his campaign is low-tech, said his campaign consultant, Terry Price. The web, social media and email are crucial communication tools for Coursey’s outreach, he said.

“It used to be you weren’t a candidate unless you had a headquarters. Now nobody has a headquarters and you’re not a candidate until you put up a website.” Price said.

In addition to providing candidates’ issues and endorsements, websites are becoming more important as tools to raise funds through features like PayPal and to organize volunteers, Price said. They provide important links to social media sites, which are becoming crucial communication tools.

“The last event Chris did we did no mailed invitations at all. It was all done through social media, which is something that two years ago I would never have done,” Price said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.?On Twitter @srcitybeat.