Add political calls to state No Call List

Attorney General Jay Nixon will make a lot of new friends if he's successful in adding automated political calls to the state's No Call List. Nixon on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve legislation that would halt the non-

stop political calls during the campaign season. Many Missourians reported getting dozens of calls on behalf of candidates or ballot issues.

Currently 2.3 million Missouri families are on the No Call List which prohibits most telemarketers from soliciting over the phone usually during the nighttime hours. But automated political calls are not included in that prohibition. Nixon wants to change that.

But Nixon doesn't stop there. He also would like a bill that prohibits telemarketing calls to cell phones and junk faxes to fax machines. Past attempts to address these problems have stalled in the Missouri House. I suspect the climate has changed following the avalanche of calls during this election cycle.

Known as robo-calls, the political messages are prerecorded including everyone from former President Bill Clinton to First Lady Laura Bush. These calls generated hundreds of complaints this year.

The Missouri Legislature must address this annoying practice during the upcoming session. It is most certainly not aimed at one political party or any specific ballot issue.

No Call Lists exclude important calls like from your doctor's office or from a business to inform you that an order has arrived. But when it says a No Call List, that's exactly what it should mean - politics included.

Missouri would not be the first state to ban the robo-calls from politicians. But it should be the next state to approve such legislation.