202-630-9908: National Organization for Marriage's robocalls against gay marriage are pissing off New Yorkers; NOM even calls cell phones repeatedly

(More about NOM and its robocalls here)

Above graphic is from the Human Rights Campaign/Courage Campaign website NOM Exposed

Jeremy Hooper, of Good As You, has documented the anger of New Yorkers who have been pestered by robocalls by NOM and complained on the web site 800notes.com  about 202-630-9908, the number from which the National Organization for Marriage is making anti-gay marriage phone calls.

NOTE: If you know of any numbers NOM is using to annoy people (other than 202-630-9908) please leave a comment in the section after this post.

Want to do more? If you are annoyed by NOM's deceptive half-truths, its disregard for your desire to be left alone and don't like the money NOM is costing New Yorkers for automated calls to their mobile phones, then why not call your New York senator (find him/her here) and tell him or her to pass the marriage equality bill?

Here are some sample complaints via GoodAsYou (see blog list at bottom right of this page) about NOM's abusive robocalls:

6/4/2011  -  Info:Re:202-630-9908, freersrch2011 - Landline, District of Columbia (Washington, DC).  The phone carrier is Bandwidth Com Clec. Bandwidth.com Clec,LLC. Complain to the carrier.

This number is calling a 88 year old man, my father and it is driving him nuts.  Please make this go away!

Received a call from this number today (6/5/2011 6:34 PM) that beeped and then my iPhone made a noise like it was taking a picture!  Very disturbing to say the least.

got a call from this number 202-630-9908 on my cell two days in a row (sunday night and monday noon). Both left a message (voice recording message) saying they're doing a national survey and will call back again! How can I stop them?

I have gotten several calls from this number in the past couple of months with an automated survey about gay marriage from the National Organization for Marriage.  I have answered every time and they still keep calling.  I just called 609-688-0450, the organizations number and left a message to be taken off of their call list.  We'll see if it works...

Congress allows political groups
to bother you with robocalls

Unfortunately there is little you can do to stop the National Organization for Marriage's robocalls because political calls are exempt from Federal Trade Commission rules governing robocalls.


FROM NOM's WikiPedia entry:

...In March 2009, Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that the National Organization for Marriage was established by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to direct church funds toward the passage of Proposition 8.[23] A church spokesman and NOM's then-president Maggie Gallagher both denied the allegations...

In 2009, Californians Against Hate filed a formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against NOM, saying that NOM had refused to make its IRS 990 forms public, as required by law. CAH representatives went to "the Princeton, New Jersey, offices of the National Organization for Marriage twice to get copies of their IRS 990 reports, to no avail," said CAH's president, Fred Karger. "Then our representative, Ben Katzenberg, sent two certified letters to the NOM office on March 18, 2009, requesting its two 990 forms. Federal law requires NOM to furnish copies of these IRS filings within 30 days after the request has been received. And 40 days later, still no 990s."[79] NOM has since posted 990 forms for 2007 and 2008 on their website.[80]

Accusations by Fred Karger also lead the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to schedule consideration of an investigation.[81] Maine laws require that organizations which solicit more than $5000 for a ballot question campaign file disclosure reports.[29] NOM has contributed $1.6 million to Stand For Marriage Maine, as of October 23, 2009, without filing any disclosure reports.[29] The commission approved an investigation on a 3-2 vote, overriding the recommendation of their staff.[82] NOM responded by filing suit, claiming that the state's election laws violate the Constitution.[29] NOM used the likelihood of their suit's success as an argument to obtain a federal restraining order which would keep them from having to provide donor names before the date of the election; the request was turned down by federal Judge David Brock Hornby.[83] In January 2010, representatives of the group were subpoenaed to appear before the commission. In February, the group requested that those subpoenas be dropped, but the commission voted unanimously to deny that request.[84] On May 23, 2010, Judge John H. Rich III of the U.S. District Court of Maine ordered NOM to submit bank statements and similar documentation, covering the dates from January 1, 2009 forward. The documents were to be submitted to Maine's Commission on Government Ethics and Election Practices within seven days of his ruling.[85][86] On June 24, 2010, the commission rejected NOM's claim that the commission lacked appropriate authority and should thus cease the investigation.[87] In February 2011, Hornby put forth a summary judgment ruling Maine's disclosure law valid, which NOM appealed the following month.[88]

In Iowa, the organization faces accusations from the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund and One Iowa that it has failed to properly disclose its contributors.[27] NOM's efforts in that state included spending $86,060 on the failed state House of Representatives campaign of Stephen Burgmeier.[89]

NOM executive director Brian Brown has stated that the group does not release donor names to prevent donor intimidation by proponents of same-sex marriage.[90]

On April 8, 2011, Louis Marinelli, a 25-year-old NOM activist and online strategist who describes himself as "the one behind the 2010 Summer for Marriage Tour", had driven the bus during that tour, and had moderated many of NOM's web properties (including its Facebook page, its NomUpdates Twitter account, and the Tour blog), resigned from his affiliation with the organization, announced his support for same-sex civil marriage, and categorically apologized for and repudiated his past actions on behalf of the organization.[99][100][101] He also shut down the Facebook page he had built up for NOM, which had 290,000 followers.[102] The defection was described by Human Rights Campaign's NOM Exposed project director Kevin Nix as "a good example of what is and will continue to be consistent in the fight for equality".[103] On April 9, 2011, NOM created a new official Facebook page (to replace the one created by Marinelli), and released this statement: "Louis Marinelli worked in a volunteer capacity as a bus driver during our summer marriage tour. Around this time, NOM began to pay him as a part-time consultant for helping us expand our internet reach. He has since chosen a different focus. We wish him well."[102][104] NOM president Brian Brown downplayed Marinelli's role with the organization, saying, "Louis was a bus driver. It’s pretty hilarious, this idea that he was a top strategist for NOM. He was a part-time consultant."[101]