My Final Three-Day Battle Plan for the Ames Straw Poll

[rp08orbust]

Last night I ran about $2,000 worth of the "Champion" robocall across the middle of Iowa (the robocall has already been publicly described at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45405 and elsewhere, so there is no point in being secret about it), from which I harvested 164 phone numbers of Ron Paul supporters. At about $12 each, that may sound like an expensive way to identify Ron Paul supporters, except:

These people have demonstrated knowledge of Ron Paul by answering the question correctly.
They have expressed interest in obtaining tickets to the Ames straw poll.
They have put forth a little bit more effort (at least 10 times as many keystrokes, to be exact) than those who simply press '7' for Ron Paul in a robopoll by texting his name to me.
Based on the experiment I did on Sunday evening, I expect to get a few dozen more responses to last night's robocall throughout today, probably bringing the cost down to less than $10 per identified supporter.


Furthermore, no follow-up phonebanking is necessary to turn this harvest into straw poll votes (I will be sending them text messages in the morning with instructions on how to obtain their free tickets and bus rides that they won), although I will ask for volunteers to follow-up with these people anyway. Therefore I consider this a pretty good use of money compared to the robopolls when phonebankers are in short supply.

My plan for the next three days is this:


Thursday

This evening I will spend the remaining ~$1,000 credit, as well as another $1,000 in proceeds from Ron Paul supporter phone number sales I'm expecting, on the "Champion" robocall in order to produce another ~200 likely Ron Paul straw poll voters. I actually intended to spend $3,000 on this robocall Wednesday evening, but it appears that I was throttled by the voice broadcasting system due to my robocall demanding too much from telephone networks in rural areas (I made over half a million calls).

I will also hopefully have volunteers making follow-up calls to last night's winners, checking to make sure they have the bus rides they need from the Ron Paul campaign.

In the meantime, I will try to find more funding for the robocall, perhaps making another attempt at getting in touch with those running Revolution PAC and see if they wish to buy phone numbers. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

If I am able to come up with more than $2,000 by noon Central, then I will try running the robocall during lunch hour. Even though lots of people won't be on lunch breaks at that time, I'd imagine most would still hear the 12 second robocall message before hanging up, and could easily text back their answer when they have time.


Friday

If there is funding for it, I will start running the "Champion" robocall at about 10am. While this is not the ideal time for running robocalls, Friday evening will be too late for people to arrange for bus rides to Ames with the Ron Paul campaign. I would run the robocall until perhaps around 2pm, hopefully with volunteers helping me make follow-up phone calls to free ticket winners in addition to the SMS messages I will be sending.


Saturday

If there are still funds for it, then I will start a robopoll (i.e., the 8-candidate survey, not the "Champion" free ticket promotion) in Ames and Des Moines at 10am to identify new people leaning toward Ron Paul for president in 2012. Volunteer phonebankers would immediately follow up with urgent pleas to vote for Ron Paul in the straw poll (they will be able to do so for free, though I will not say how publicly) as soon as they are identified. I would continue this up until about 2 to 3 pm, or however long my calling credit lasts. The reasoning behind this tactic is that people who take the time to respond to the robopoll are probably not busy, and we know they are likely close to Ames, so if we can get a hold of them right away, it might be easier to persuade them to swing by ISU and vote than it has been in the last several weeks, when perhaps some people have been reluctant to commit in case something better comes along for this Saturday. For those responding to my robopoll, something better has probably not come along.

I would guess that the cost of identifying new Ron Paul leaners in Ames and Des Moines on Saturday will be around $4 each, because I have already polled this area twice (they cost $2 per phone number in the first poll and $3 per phone number in the second poll). If one in ten can be persuaded to go vote for Ron Paul, then that will amount to $40 per vote. That's expensive, but it's those marginal votes that could push Ron Paul over the top.

I've asked Jun if he would help with the phonebanking at this stage, but he will be too busy in Ames redeeming rp2012.org vouchers all day. He did offer to give me staff-level access to his phonebanking system, but said he wouldn't have time between now and then to show me how to use it, and that no one else does. If I am to make use of his system, then it would greatly increase the number of volunteers I would have for phonebanking at this stage.


"Buy my phone numbers."

If you would like to see the above plan executed, then I will need people to buy phone numbers from me. If you're wondering why I don't just set up a Chip-In for this, the answer is simply that I cannot legally do so because I am not operating as a PAC, which is required in order to take donations and spend more than $1,000 influencing a federal election. Running the robopolls as a business has given me more flexibility than a PAC would have, such as the ability to sell phone numbers to the Ron Paul campaign.

If you would like to purchase phone numbers, send me an email at r gear y i i i at g mail dot com (please don't send me a PM, I hate them). For large purchases, I recommend that people make their payments directly into my voice broadcasting account, which not only avoids the potential pitfalls of PayPal, but assures people that the sale proceeds will be spent on more robocalls.

[IDefendThePlatform]

Sounds great. Just emailed you. We need to keep pushing like every vote counts all the way through 4pm Saturday.

[rp08orbust]

Bump

[trey4sports]

great job.

[ballejohn]

PURCHASE NUMBERS and we will win Ames!

[IDefendThePlatform]

Keep pushing guys! And please keep phonebanking as well!

[speciallyblend]

good luck on the ground in Iowa, donate here www.ronpaul2012.com and help rp08orbust if you can folks!!

[rp08orbust]

Bump

[RonPaul101.com]

Great job. I think the higher cost with greater certainty is the better way to go. With a straw poll (and caucus for that matter) you really need more of a "supporter" identified than a "voter".

[rp08orbust]

I've heard from someone inside the Iowa campaign office that the phone number I gave to the winners of my "Champion" roboocall quiz has been ringing continuously today with people asking for bus rides.

Come on, folks--let's keep it going! It's a simple recipe for victory in the straw poll!

[RonPaul101.com]

Awesome!

[rp08orbust]

Moar $$$ = moar robocalls = moar votes for Ron Paul!!!

[trey4sports]

bump, let's win!

[rp08orbust]

Bump

[ForLibertyFight]

Just made 61 calls from rp08orbust's list.

23 new Iowans are now voting for Ron Paul at the Ames Straw Poll. :)

[pauliticalfan]

Just made 61 calls from rp08orbust's list.

23 new Iowans are now voting for Ron Paul at the Ames Straw Poll. :)

+rep

[speciallyblend]

Just made 61 calls from rp08orbust's list.

23 new Iowans are now voting for Ron Paul at the Ames Straw Poll. :)

awesome, keep up the good work

[Aratus]

coooooooool!! the debate is in less than ten minutes!
cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!

[KingRobbStark]

This is great keep it up guys.

[IDefendThePlatform]

Bump

[S.Shorland]

Bump

[trey4sports]

bump

[harikaried]

Just reminding that you can follow up on these Constitution IDs through rp2012.org

[Aratus]

!!!


Last night I ran about $2,000 worth of the "Champion" robocall across the middle of Iowa (the robocall has already been publicly described at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45405 and elsewhere, so there is no point in being secret about it), from which I harvested 164 phone numbers of Ron Paul supporters. At about $12 each, that may sound like an expensive way to identify Ron Paul supporters, except:

These people have demonstrated knowledge of Ron Paul by answering the question correctly.
They have expressed interest in obtaining tickets to the Ames straw poll.
They have put forth a little bit more effort (at least 10 times as many keystrokes, to be exact) than those who simply press '7' for Ron Paul in a robopoll by texting his name to me.
Based on the experiment I did on Sunday evening, I expect to get a few dozen more responses to last night's robocall throughout today, probably bringing the cost down to less than $10 per identified supporter.


Furthermore, no follow-up phonebanking is necessary to turn this harvest into straw poll votes (I will be sending them text messages in the morning with instructions on how to obtain their free tickets and bus rides that they won), although I will ask for volunteers to follow-up with these people anyway. Therefore I consider this a pretty good use of money compared to the robopolls when phonebankers are in short supply.

My plan for the next three days is this:


Thursday

This evening I will spend the remaining ~$1,000 credit, as well as another $1,000 in proceeds from Ron Paul supporter phone number sales I'm expecting, on the "Champion" robocall in order to produce another ~200 likely Ron Paul straw poll voters. I actually intended to spend $3,000 on this robocall Wednesday evening, but it appears that I was throttled by the voice broadcasting system due to my robocall demanding too much from telephone networks in rural areas (I made over half a million calls).

I will also hopefully have volunteers making follow-up calls to last night's winners, checking to make sure they have the bus rides they need from the Ron Paul campaign.

In the meantime, I will try to find more funding for the robocall, perhaps making another attempt at getting in touch with those running Revolution PAC and see if they wish to buy phone numbers. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

If I am able to come up with more than $2,000 by noon Central, then I will try running the robocall during lunch hour. Even though lots of people won't be on lunch breaks at that time, I'd imagine most would still hear the 12 second robocall message before hanging up, and could easily text back their answer when they have time.


Friday

If there is funding for it, I will start running the "Champion" robocall at about 10am. While this is not the ideal time for running robocalls, Friday evening will be too late for people to arrange for bus rides to Ames with the Ron Paul campaign. I would run the robocall until perhaps around 2pm, hopefully with volunteers helping me make follow-up phone calls to free ticket winners in addition to the SMS messages I will be sending.


Saturday

If there are still funds for it, then I will start a robopoll (i.e., the 8-candidate survey, not the "Champion" free ticket promotion) in Ames and Des Moines at 10am to identify new people leaning toward Ron Paul for president in 2012. Volunteer phonebankers would immediately follow up with urgent pleas to vote for Ron Paul in the straw poll (they will be able to do so for free, though I will not say how publicly) as soon as they are identified. I would continue this up until about 2 to 3 pm, or however long my calling credit lasts. The reasoning behind this tactic is that people who take the time to respond to the robopoll are probably not busy, and we know they are likely close to Ames, so if we can get a hold of them right away, it might be easier to persuade them to swing by ISU and vote than it has been in the last several weeks, when perhaps some people have been reluctant to commit in case something better comes along for this Saturday. For those responding to my robopoll, something better has probably not come along.

I would guess that the cost of identifying new Ron Paul leaners in Ames and Des Moines on Saturday will be around $4 each, because I have already polled this area twice (they cost $2 per phone number in the first poll and $3 per phone number in the second poll). If one in ten can be persuaded to go vote for Ron Paul, then that will amount to $40 per vote. That's expensive, but it's those marginal votes that could push Ron Paul over the top.

I've asked Jun if he would help with the phonebanking at this stage, but he will be too busy in Ames redeeming rp2012.org vouchers all day. He did offer to give me staff-level access to his phonebanking system, but said he wouldn't have time between now and then to show me how to use it, and that no one else does. If I am to make use of his system, then it would greatly increase the number of volunteers I would have for phonebanking at this stage.


"Buy my phone numbers."

If you would like to see the above plan executed, then I will need people to buy phone numbers from me. If you're wondering why I don't just set up a Chip-In for this, the answer is simply that I cannot legally do so because I am not operating as a PAC, which is required in order to take donations and spend more than $1,000 influencing a federal election. Running the robopolls as a business has given me more flexibility than a PAC would have, such as the ability to sell phone numbers to the Ron Paul campaign.

If you would like to purchase phone numbers, send me an email at r gear y i i i at g mail dot com (please don't send me a PM, I hate them). For large purchases, I recommend that people make their payments directly into my voice broadcasting account, which not only avoids the potential pitfalls of PayPal, but assures people that the sale proceeds will be spent on more robocalls.


good luck on the ground in Iowa, donate here www.ronpaul2012.com and help rp08orbust if you can folks!!


I've heard from someone inside the Iowa campaign office that the phone number I gave to the winners of my "Champion" roboocall quiz has been ringing continuously today with people asking for bus rides.

Come on, folks--let's keep it going! It's a simple recipe for victory in the straw poll!


Just made 61 calls from rp08orbust's list.

23 new Iowans are now voting for Ron Paul at the Ames Straw Poll. :)

[harikaried]

We need more callers! This one is pretty simple -- it's just letting the person know how to get the tickets and who to contact for transportations.

[davidt!]

ttt

[parocks]

how did this one turn out?

[rp08orbust]

how did this one turn out?

Thursday and Friday were fantastic after I made the discovery Friday afternoon that I was identifying three or four times as many solid Ron Paul supporters than I realized. My robocall message was asking people to "text back" with the correct answer to the question, "Who is the champion of the Constitution and the taxpayer's best friend?", to win free tickets and bus rides to the Ames straw poll. Oddly, most people were interpreting this to mean that they should start typing their answer while the robocall message was still playing! Once I accounted for these responses, I realized this robocall was identifying solid Ron Paul supporters for about $3 each, with follow-up phonebankers reporting that around half of them, on average, were resulting in new straw poll votes for Ron Paul. And this was all in distant parts of Iowa like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City!

I therefore changed my plan for Saturday morning to run this robocall message (minus the promise of free bus rides) in the Ames/Des Moines area instead of running the same survey question I had been using for several weeks. I estimated the robocall to cost about $3,000 and to generate about 1,000 new responses from solid Ron Paul supporters. The only obstacle was funding. I had not found any new buyers of my phone numbers from RPF in a few weeks, so I was having to bug the same people for funding. At about 9am Central I made a phone call to someone who was on his way to Ames. He said the campaign was pretty confident about the straw poll, but that once he got there he would talk to them to get an idea of whether he thought more votes were needed, and if they were, he would call me back. After that phone call, I decided to take a nap while waiting for the call back.

I now know that going to sleep was the biggest mistake of my life. I didn't wake up until 3:56pm Central. As much as I would love to be convinced otherwise, I believe that running that robocall would have pushed Ron Paul over the top, even if it had only been a fraction as successful as I had estimated. With the increased traffic on the forums that day, I might have been able to find the buyers I needed to fund the robocall. But even if I hadn't, if my instincts said to run the robocall, I should have just run it and worried about funding later.

[trey4sports]

Thursday and Friday were fantastic after I made the discovery Friday afternoon that I was identifying three or four times as many solid Ron Paul supporters than I realized. My robocall message was asking people to "text back" with the correct answer to the question, "Who is the champion of the Constitution and the taxpayer's best friend?", to win free tickets and bus rides to the Ames straw poll. Oddly, most people were interpreting this to mean that they should start typing their answer while the robocall message was still playing! Once I accounted for these responses, I realized this robocall was identifying solid Ron Paul supporters for about $3 each, with follow-up phonebankers reporting that around half of them, on average, were resulting in new straw poll votes for Ron Paul. And this was all in distant parts of Iowa like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City!

I therefore changed my plan for Saturday morning to run this robocall message (minus the promise of free bus rides) in the Ames/Des Moines area instead of running the same survey question I had been using for several weeks. I estimated the robocall to cost about $3,000 and to generate about 1,000 new responses from solid Ron Paul supporters. The only obstacle was funding. I had not found any new buyers of my phone numbers from RPF in a few weeks, so I was having to bug the same people for funding. At about 9am Central I made a phone call to someone who was on his way to Ames. He said the campaign was pretty confident about the straw poll, but that once he got there he would talk to them to get an idea of whether he thought more votes were needed, and if they were, he would call me back. After that phone call, I decided to take a nap while waiting for the phone call.

I now know that going to sleep was the biggest mistake of my life. I didn't wake up until 3:56pm Central. As much as I would love to be convinced otherwise, I believe that running that robocall would have pushed Ron Paul over the top, even if it had only been a fraction as successful as I had estimated. With the increased traffic on the forums that day, I might have been able to find the buyers I needed to fund the robocall. But even if I hadn't, if my instincts said to run the robocall, I should have just run it and worried about funding later.



Don't sweat it. You did a lot for the straw poll, and it is just warm up for the real thing.

Anyway, what's next on the agenda? Are you going to be able to scale up efforts for the Iowa Caucus at a later point? Have you made any contact with REV PAC to see if they would be interested in working with you? (barring any bullshit, PAC laws inhibiting such collaboration)

[rp08orbust]

Anyway, what's next on the agenda? Are you going to be able to scale up efforts for the Iowa Caucus at a later point? Have you made any contact with REV PAC to see if they would be interested in working with you? (barring any bullshit, PAC laws inhibiting such collaboration)

There was nothing stopping Revolution PAC from buying phone numbers from me like the Ron Paul campaign did, but they weren't interested.

Without a major source of funding like that, "scaling up" is out out of the question when the robocalling project was barely hobbling along at the level that it was.

Furthermore, I don't think it is scalable much further. After a few tries, you've gotten responses from just about everyone who is going to listen and respond to your robocall.

The Iowa straw poll was the ideal opportunity for a tiny amount of money to make a massive difference through a simple idea like this.

[parocks]

Thursday and Friday were fantastic after I made the discovery Friday afternoon that I was identifying three or four times as many solid Ron Paul supporters than I realized. My robocall message was asking people to "text back" with the correct answer to the question, "Who is the champion of the Constitution and the taxpayer's best friend?", to win free tickets and bus rides to the Ames straw poll. Oddly, most people were interpreting this to mean that they should start typing their answer while the robocall message was still playing! Once I accounted for these responses, I realized this robocall was identifying solid Ron Paul supporters for about $3 each, with follow-up phonebankers reporting that around half of them, on average, were resulting in new straw poll votes for Ron Paul. And this was all in distant parts of Iowa like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City!

I therefore changed my plan for Saturday morning to run this robocall message (minus the promise of free bus rides) in the Ames/Des Moines area instead of running the same survey question I had been using for several weeks. I estimated the robocall to cost about $3,000 and to generate about 1,000 new responses from solid Ron Paul supporters. The only obstacle was funding. I had not found any new buyers of my phone numbers from RPF in a few weeks, so I was having to bug the same people for funding. At about 9am Central I made a phone call to someone who was on his way to Ames. He said the campaign was pretty confident about the straw poll, but that once he got there he would talk to them to get an idea of whether he thought more votes were needed, and if they were, he would call me back. After that phone call, I decided to take a nap while waiting for the call back.

I now know that going to sleep was the biggest mistake of my life. I didn't wake up until 3:56pm Central. As much as I would love to be convinced otherwise, I believe that running that robocall would have pushed Ron Paul over the top, even if it had only been a fraction as successful as I had estimated. With the increased traffic on the forums that day, I might have been able to find the buyers I needed to fund the robocall. But even if I hadn't, if my instincts said to run the robocall, I should have just run it and worried about funding later.

About this "I now know that going to sleep was the biggest mistake of my life. "

I wouldn't be so sure about that. The anticipated media response to a Ron Paul Straw Poll victory was "100% Rick Perry". Discussion of the Ames Straw Poll would be, "not worth anything anymore." That result would make Iowa Republicans unhappy with Ron Paul. Winning the Straw Poll would not have given the huge dividends to us. But it would've prevented them going to Bachmann. But Bachmann's not going to be there in the end. But it's good to see a tea party candidate the one that got a couple more votes than us. So, the story really is "tea party rules Ames". There will be an establishment candidate who won't quit until the end. Do we want that to be Romney or Perry? Bachmann just won't be there at the end. So, a good argument can be made that it's best being exactly where we are.

Either way, it's a learning experience for you. You have learned a lot. You know a lot of minute details about what works and what doesn't and you've tried inventive stuff that has worked. These systems that you're developing are duplicatable.

If a meetup wants to know what to spend money on - how about these robocalls? You might develop a set of plans and instructions for how a meetup group might want to robopolling and cell phones and texting and all of these new features that you are innovating on. I've been doing a bit of thinking about this as well, and you certainly have been.

The meetup groups seem to lack things to do. Often it's waving signs months before normal people would wave signs. Often the idea is "how can I get old people to see my amateurish ad". And these things are typically not the things to do, but it's what they can think of.

What you offer is a service that a meetup could definitely be interested in. If I'm in a meetup, I'm going to try to have a plan.

Let's say that right now the goal of the meetup group is to grow the meetup group. One way to do that is through a robopoll. The cell phones are in the hands of the Ron Paul supporters, so we can use that list. 20 Miles from a city - call everybody. Give the meetup group all your data. You have it, they might want it all for some reason. So, a meetup group then has a tremendous amount of data. They can use that data for a wide variety of projects. Try to move the people from pressing the right number to becoming a member of the meetup group. My sig has Ron Paul Free Show. After the meetup gets the data, the people in the meetup contact those people, the ID'd voters. Perhaps they invite them to a meetup group meeting. Or to a Ron Paul Free Show. Which, if you like Ron Paul, but not that much, might be a better introduction than a meetup group.

[S.Shorland]

Yes.I agree that your approach is terrific and needs to be rolled out to meetup groups asap.I'm sorry I posted on friday but I did bump your thread when I realised my mistake.Really I think that this is the most important election in your country for 50 years and your people have a right to know Paul exists and is the source of consistent,principled policy rather than the ersatz nonsense of opportunists like Bachmann,Perry and Palin.

[rp08orbust]

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/lawmakers-could-face-fines-over-robocalls-to-cell-192778.html

[IDefendThePlatform]

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/lawmakers-could-face-fines-over-robocalls-to-cell-192778.html

I get "article no longer available" but it just be iPhone. What did it say?

[fatjohn]

There was nothing stopping Revolution PAC from buying phone numbers from me like the Ron Paul campaign did, but they weren't interested.

Without a major source of funding like that, "scaling up" is out out of the question when the robocalling project was barely hobbling along at the level that it was.

Furthermore, I don't think it is scalable much further. After a few tries, you've gotten responses from just about everyone who is going to listen and respond to your robocall.

The Iowa straw poll was the ideal opportunity for a tiny amount of money to make a massive difference through a simple idea like this.

So you think you reached a sealing with this strategy in Iowa with what? 10000 dollars? It could thus be easily repeated in every caucus state for 250,000 dollars. That is even smaller than the blimp project.

[rp08orbust]

So you think you reached a sealing with this strategy in Iowa with what? 10000 dollars? It could thus be easily repeated in every caucus state for 250,000 dollars. That is even smaller than the blimp project.

See post #33 for the real ceiling.

[parocks]

See post #33 for the real ceiling.

I read the article, tried to find out what the law is. I do remember that you were conscious of the do not call registry.

There seemed to be a special provision about congressmen that might've been violated. You aren't a congressman.

It's not a $11K fine for anyone to robocall someone on the do not call list, is it?

[rp08orbust]

I read the article, tried to find out what the law is. I do remember that you were conscious of the do not call registry.

There seemed to be a special provision about congressmen that might've been violated. You aren't a congressman.

It's not a $11K fine for anyone to robocall someone on the do not call list, is it?

Re-read the article. It has nothing to do with the do not call list, from which non-commercial calls are exempt. There are no special laws for congressmen.

[ballejohn]

Robopolling landlines is 100% legal. And it will be used again to promote liberty.

[parocks]

Re-read the article. It has nothing to do with the do not call list, from which non-commercial calls are exempt. There are no special laws for congressmen.

Re reading the article. Still confused.

"As far as the FCC is concerned, the matter is clear. Kimball said congressmen and congresswomen are not allowed by law to make robocalls to wireless devices. She cited the U.S. Code. (Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Part I, Section 227, to be exact .)

She also confirmed that if members make robocalls, they could face stiff penalties.

The FTC doesn't have any provision expressly prohibiting members of Congress from making robocalls to mobile devices, said Mitch Katz, a spokesman for the FTC.

But members of Congress don't get to choose which rules to follow. They are compelled to follow both commissions' rules, Kimball said.

Part of what makes the robocall issue confusing is a well-known rule that allows politicians and political campaigns — along with a few other types of organizations — to make robocalls to all land lines, even ones listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. The exceptions were written into a law that makes most telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry illegal."


I don't know what the most relevant part is, but this could be it.

"Part of what makes the robocall issue confusing is a well-known rule that allows politicians and political campaigns — along with a few other types of organizations — to make robocalls to all land lines, even ones listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. The exceptions were written into a law that makes most telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry illegal."

If it isn't, you could tell us what is the relevant part, perhaps, because you posted the link, and most, if not all, of what you say should be listened to.

The distinction between landline and cellphone seems relevant, and National Do Not Call Registry seems relevant.

[Napoleon's Shadow]

I read the article, tried to find out what the law is. I do remember that you were conscious of the do not call registry.

There seemed to be a special provision about congressmen that might've been violated. You aren't a congressman.

It's not a $11K fine for anyone to robocall someone on the do not call list, is it?
It's my understanding that the DoNotCall List does not apply to politics.

[rp08orbust]

It's my understanding that the DoNotCall List does not apply to politics.

That's true at the federal level and also in Iowa. Some states (notably New Hampshire) apply the national DNC list to political calls as well.