Third GOP Senator Condemns Robo Calls

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) called on John McCain’s campaign to stop using robo calls as a campaign tactic, marking the third Republican senator to call on the party leader to abandon the controversial calls.

“She feels they are regrettable and inappropriate, and these tactics should be suspended immediately,” John Richter, Snowe’s chief of staff, told the Portland Press Herald. Richter said that Snowe would be in touch with McCain’s campaign to “express that directly.”

Fellow Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) first called on McCain last week to end the controversial calls in which a recorded narrator accuses Barack Obama of ties with William Ayers, who the call characterizes as a “domestic terrorist.” Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) called on the McCain campaign and other candidates and campaign committees to cease using the calls Saturday.

In the face of growing scrutiny, the McCain campaign has stood by the tactic, with both McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin vouching for the validity of the claims in the calls during recent interviews.

–Michael O’Brien