36th District candidate Gael Tarleton investigates suspicious robocalls

36th District candidate Gael Tarleton’s campaign is currently investigating some suspicious robocalls made to voters last week. According to a statement from Tarleton’s campaign, several voters contacted the campaign Thursday night and Friday morning to complain they received up to a dozen calls in one hour from callers identifying themselves as part of the Tarleton campaign.

My Ballard forum user Sunflower75 posted that their phone was ringing off the hook on Thursday night, with 10 calls all from the same number. “Every time I would answer… Hang up. Finally someone responded on the last call and it was a person reading a script asking me to vote for Gael.” (Read the forum comment thread here)

In the statement, Tarleton denies the calls came from her campaign, saying, “I really don’t know if these calls are coming from misguided supporters or it’s a dirty trick. But after three weeks of big-money attacks against me paid for by a $100,000 independent expenditure by friends of my opponent, it is suspicious. It certainly feels deliberate and intended to harm my campaign.” Noel Frame, Tarleton’s opponent, told us by phone that her campaign has, “absolutely nothing to do with it,” adding that she’s been trying to investigate the situation herself. “Gael is clearly not doing this, we’re not doing this. Please don’t hold it against Gael,” Frame explained.

The phone number used in the calls came from 720-862-2044, and has been traced to an out-of-state company called J2 Solutions. Tarleton says they plan to further investigate the calls, and asks that voters email info@voteforgael.org if they receive harassing calls related to the campaign.