A news report I'd like to read:
Hawaii's legislators agree to no phone solicitations
Hawaii's legislators unanimously agreed to discontinue the practice of telephoning citizens (those they don't know personally) for campaign purposes, this includes surveys, polls, researches and invitations to meetings. No more phone banks, auto-dialing, etc.
Quotes a spokesperson, "Over the decades it's been communicated, by the overwhelming number of immediate hangups, that the vast majority of residents are irritated when they receive a phone call from a legislator/candidate. We have arrogantly ignored our citizen's feedback and their right to privacy and freedom from interruption by someone's political agenda. We've made our agendas more important; we've justified that it's OK to interrupt a homeowner in the middle of his/her daily routines. It's time we acknowledge that communicating in a way that detracts from another's aliveness and well-being is in fact abusive. Included in the agreement is to not hire surveyors/poll/opinion takers."
Everyone agreed that a politician may talk to a friend and ask him/her to enroll just one other friend, and ask that person to call someone they know, etc. etc. In this way residents will only receive calls from people they know, friends who also may ask, "Please don't call me about political stuff anymore."
"We intend to campaign to have legislators, candidates, poll takers and surveyors added to the National Do Not Call list."
