A barrage of text messages sent out by the mayoral campaign of Paul Vallas had some Chicagoans taking to social media on Thursday to express displeasure with the unsolicited correspondence.
The texts promised to share insight into Vallas’ plan “to win the War Against Crime,” and linked to a website paid for by Vallas for All Chicago.
Blowback was swift on social media for the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, including a post by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) who got on his Twitter soapbox to ask why Vallas was “spamming” the city.
EVERYONE:
— Carlos Freytes 🇵🇷 (@CarlosFreytesJr) January 3, 2019
Ugh, nothing is more annoying than campaign ads.
PAUL VALLAS:
FREE MSG: Hold my beer.
Other social media users were more direct, with some promising that the unsolicited messages would keep them from considering Vallas for their vote.
Based solely on the spam text I just got on my phone from your campaign, I have eliminated you from consideration in the upcoming mayoral race. Don’t spam people.
— fakelawn 💉💉💉 (@fakelawn) January 3, 2019
Why is @Paulvallas texting me? I hardly give out my number to anyone, and *never* to political campaigns. Really obnoxious.
— Adrian Moran (@jadrianmoran) January 3, 2019
How to opt out of the text messages
It’s easy to opt out of the text messages if you get one and don’t want to receive others — just text “Stop” back to the sender, the campaign said.
The Vallas campaign did not respond to questions posed by the Sun-Times on Thursday about their use of text messaging to reach voters, but did provide a statement:
The campaign has chosen to use text messages as a way to give voters important information about the upcoming Mayoral election. We believe this modern campaign tool, used by thousands of campaigns across the country, to be far less intrusive and more effective than other forms of direct voter communication. Any voter who wishes to end text communications from our campaign can reply STOP at any time – an option robocalls, social media ads, and environmentally unfriendly postal mail do not offer. The campaign’s messaging is legally compliant and is sent using Free to End User or toll-free number channels, so there is no cost to voters.
Ironically, no phone numbers are listed for the campaign on the Vallas for All Chicago website, so you can’t text them back with your thoughts.
