FC: Did Florida's Jeb Bush spam voters by using Democratic mail list?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Paul points us to Dan Balz' column, which can be found here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44609-2002Mar31.html  There 
are two obvious issues when it comes to such a list: Acquisition and use. 
For the first, it seems to me that the same rules that govern in meatspace 
should apply here. If a Democratic campaign is careless enough to give away 
its list of supporters, that campaign should expect others to end up with a 
copy. But unsolicited email is arguably more intrusive than unsolicited 
U.S. mail (though far less intrusive than an unsolicited telephone call), 
so a prudent campaign manager may wish to think twice before using it. In 
any case, it seems clear that what may not be prudent here should 
nevertheless be legal. --Declan]

---

Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 10:19:16 -0500
From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY () citizen org>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Is it SPAM?  Is it wrong?

I am curious about your take - - and about the take of the folks who went 
after the California primary candidate who used UBE to raise contributions 
- - on the report in today's Washington Post about Florida governor Jeb 
Bush's having sent an email to a list of 800 supporters of Democratic party 
gubernatorial candidate McBride (it seems McBride messed up by failing to 
hide the email addresses of the recipients of a campaign newsletter).  Is 
this improper spam?  Or is this protected political speech to a list of 
persons who have indicated that they are interested in political affairs in 
the state of Florida (albeit in a different political party)?

The story is on page A4 of the print edition (Dan Balz' Politics column), 
but I have not been able to find it online


Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html




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