Illinois GOP admits it was behind messagesBy Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU04/06/2006
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.
After initial denials this week, Illinois House Republicans acknowledged on Thursday that they are behind a stealth "robocall" phone campaign designed to derail a Democratic state budget that they allege is a fiscal time bomb."We are paying for it," House Republican spokesman David Dring said Thursday afternoon, referring to automated phone messages aimed at more than a dozen Democratic legislative districts around the state, including the Metro East area.
About 24 hours earlier, Dring and other Republican officials had denied to the Post-Dispatch that the GOP had anything to do with reports of anonymous prerecorded phone messages slamming Democratic lawmakers in their own districts over budgetary issues.
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Dring said Thursday he hadn't been aware of the program when he issued the denial on Wednesday. He defended it as "a public policy" strategy by a party that has been locked out of state budget negotiations by the Democratic majority in Springfield. He estimated the cost of the program at "less than $10,000," paid for by party funds.
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