Skelos Behind Lying Robocalls

From The Albany Project:
"A reader just passed along some information that is very interesting. The reader received a robocall today that said Sen. Malcolm Smith is a threat to education funding. The call also said to the recipient that they should call Sen. Smith and demand that he support funding for education.
The reader pointed out two key facts:

(1) The reader lives in Oswego County, which obviously isn't in Sen. Smith's district.

(2) There was nothing at the beginning or end of the call that identified where the call originated from.

I won't disclose who the reader is, but they did say that they have a family member who lives in the house that works in education. One might conclude that these calls are targeting educators or those who are tied to education, whether they are school counselors, superintendents, principals, etc.

The number that the call came from was 1-603-214-3698. I "Googled" the number and it came back that it matched some numbers associated with telemarketing calls. So it more than likely is just a random number being used to make these calls.

I would think that this is the Republicans or one of their groups that are conducting these robocalls. The reason for targeting Sen. Smith could be to try and say that you don't want the Democrats to have the majority in the New York State Senate because they will cut education funding. This has been a Republican talking point and source of dueling between the GOP conference and Democratic conference recently.

If you have received one of these phone calls, feel free to pass along your story: robert.harding22@gmail.com.

UPDATE: Another reader from Oswego County passed along a message saying that they received an identical robo-call targeting Sen. Smith and mentioning education. He, too, works in education. And like the call that started this discussion, no identification was given."