By Andrew Knittle
If you got an early morning robocall on Tuesday courtesy of R.J. Harris, a challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Cole for Oklahoma's fourth district, you weren't alone.
Starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, Harris, R-Norman, said robocalls made by automated calling service Robotalker began staggering out to about 3,000 Norman-area residents.
"Obviously, that wasn't supposed to happen," he said. "It was a software malfunction and we apologize to anybody who was called."
Harris, who also apologized on his campaign Web site on Tuesday, said about 20,000 area residents were supposed to have been called at 6 p.m. Tuesday, but that a software malfunction started the calls 12 hours early. He said his campaign alerted Robotalker and stopped the calls before the entire list was contacted.
Thad Balkman, an Oklahoma state representative for six years, was one of the many who were called. He said he was upset because of the time and tracked down Harris' home number.
"I talked to someone, I assume it was his wife, and she was very apologetic about it," Balkman said. "They were still asleep themselves, and when I called his campaign headquarters before that a machine picked up."
The robocalls, he said, asked responders to choose between Cole, R-Norman, and Harris in June 2010's primary for the U.S. congressional seat. If the responder chose Cole, a message from Harris was played, asking for their vote.
Balkman said the mess-up by Robotalker was a big one, one that could have a negative impact on Harris' campaign.
"I would have fired them so fast they wouldn't know what hit them," Balkman said. "It reflects poorly on him (Harris) and it reflects poorly on the campaign to call people that early in the morning."
Jonathan Gibbons, Harris' campaign manager, said the campaign took calls all day Tuesday regarding the 6 a.m. robocalls. He said most of them were "accepting and understanding," although "about five" were negative comments.
Gibbons said he blames Robotalker for the incident.
"They messed up," he said. "That's pretty much it."
Gibbons said the campaign spent most of Tuesday returning e-mails and voicemails, apologizing for the early morning wake-up call. He also said it wasn't clear Tuesday whether the data gathered by the estimated 1,600 received calls would be salvageable.
Harris, a second-year law student at the University of Oklahoma making his first run at public office, said he believes the mistake is minor and can be overcome as his campaign presses forward.
"All campaigns are going to make some small mistakes," Harris said. "Computer glitches happen, it's part of the drawback of living in the automated world."
Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com
