A Microcosm of Wilbert

I just got a robocall from Mayor Herenton -- on my cell phone.

Being an irredeemable political junkie, I patiently waited through the whole thing, even though I knew it was a political ad and in some small way, I was paying for it. I'm usually interested in hearing what the mayor has to say, even though I don't support him anymore. He is, after all, still the mayor, and if you put a gun to my head and forced me to bet on who was going to win, I'd put my money on him.

Unfortunately for even my curiosity, the entire substance of the mayor's call was limited to two messages: "support me," and "thanks for your support." It took an entire minute for him to say these two things, because he said each of them twice. Call me crazy, but I don't feel like that was worth even one of my cell phone minutes, and I'm on a pretty good plan.

But more important than the penny I might have paid, how on Earth did my personal cell phone number wind up on his call list? I've had that number for over three years, and while I've certainly given it out to plenty of individual politicians and political actors, I've never given that number to anyone in the mayor's campaign, or any other political campaign for that matter.

When asked, I always give my home number to campaigns, because I know exactly what political campaigns do with the phone numbers they are given, and I'd just as soon not be interrupted in the middle of whatever I was doing for the privilege of paying extra for it.

Doesn't someone inside the mayor's campaign screen out the cell phone prefixes? If they don't, is it because they expect most of their votes to come from people who use a cell phone as their primary number? Did I get the call because my cell phone number formerly belonged to a Herenton supporter? If so, how old is their call list? Or are they just calling numbers at random?

Regarding the inconvenience of the phone call, I just paid a marginal amount of money and time to hear a disappointing message from someone I didn't ask to hear from in the first place. That's not such a big deal to me. But in an uncanny way, that description also seems like an adequate metaphor for Wilbert's recent track record as the de facto leader of this city.

Most of the people who use my cell phone number only take the trouble to speak when they actually have something to say.