This year’s political robo-call wars are continuing in the South, as Alabama voters have reported receiving mysterious pro-Rick Santorum calls from an unaffiliated political action committee based in Virginia.
Conservative Christians of Alabama reported Monday night that Republican voters in Alabama have been receiving calls from the Americans In Contact PAC, a conservative political committee that is unaffiliated with any specific GOP presidential candidate.
AICPAC has not officially endorsed Rick Santorum and has had little involvement in the Republican presidential nomination process.
On January 24, AICIPAC called for supporters to help raise funds “so we can nominate a real conservative who will defeat President Barack Obama in the November election.”
The donations, the group said, would be used to evaluate levels of support for Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, as a possible late entry into the primaries. AICPAC later endorsed his candidacy, which never materialized.
The pro-Santorum robocalls are not the first time AICPAC has involved itself in Alabama politics. In 2008, the president of the Alabama State Bar accused AICPAC of placing a series of misleading robocalls that may have influenced a state Supreme Court race. (RELATED: Full coverage of the Santorum campaign)
That bar association’s president, Mark White of Birmingham, asked Alabama Attorney General Troy King to investigate the calls, which told voters that Deborah Bell Paseur, a Democratic state Supreme Court candidate, had actually failed the state’s bar exam.
The Insurance Journal reported in 2008 that while the calls did not encourage voters to vote for any specific candidate, White had alleged that the calls influenced voters to support Republican Greg Shaw, who went on to win the seat.
Whether Santorum will benefit from these calls will be determined Tuesday night. According to RealClearPolitics, the former Pennsylvania senator is running a close third in an average of pre-election polls, with 25.8-percent support.