Charlie Crist’s Wife Receives Sleazy Robocall

Florida governor Charlie Crist and his wife, Carole. Chris Zuppa/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Press

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I just ran into former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, the former Republican who has endorsed President Barack Obama, and his wife Carole, while they were strolling through the Obama campaign event in Chicago. “What’s going to happen in your state?” I asked him.

It’s close, he said. It’s possible Obama can win. Yes, I replied, but if it’s close, shenanigans can come into play.

“Yes, yes,” Crist said. “Listen to what happened to my wife.” He then nudged me in her direction. “Tell him,” he said to her.

It was a phone call, she said. A robocall. it came at 8:15 this morning. Usually, she hangs up on such calls. But this one she listened to. It went something like this: “I’m calling from the supervisor of elections for Pinellas County to remind you that Election Day is tomorrow and you can vote until 7:00 pm.” Tomorrow.

“If you woke up and heard about long lines and heard a call like this,” she told me, “You might think you can wait until tomorrow. How many thousands of calls like this went out? And who made them? I don’t know.” (She was indeed one of thousands in the county who received the same misleading call.)

Well, I said, let’s hope Florida is not another mess. “Yes,” she said. “Let’s.”

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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