The Phisher King, Tyler Vogt, spams Tucson, breaks the law

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have told you about The Phisher King, Tyler Vogt, Tea-Publican troll candidate for the Tucson City Council, who misused and abused a public records request to obtain e-mail addresses for a commercial purpose, i.e., to solicit you for campaign contributions. Tyler Vogt goes 'phishing' for your email address.

Dan Gibson at the Tucson Weekly accused Vogt of "bad form" for his spamming the e-mail list he obtained to solicit campaign contributions in Tyler Vogt, You Are Terrible at the Internet | The Range.

Turns out that The Phisher King did not cull the list for email addresses of city employees at their workplace email address. This is not just "bad form," it is illegal. Will the City Attorney open an investigation?

The Pima County Democratic Party has issued this press release which explains:

Vogt Illegally Spams Tucson and Wastes City Resources on His Campaign

Republican Tucson City Council candidate Tyler Vogt wasted little time squandering taxpayer money on his own political agenda — and breaking the law in the process. See Tucson City Charter Sec. 10-18 (d) (2) and (e) (2).

Vogt used Arizona Public Records law to force city staff to compile all e-mail correspondence between council offices and constituents and then used those contacts to build his campaign e-mail list. None of the Democratic council members used contacts made from official city business for their campaign e-mail list. They wait for people to ask to be on their list.

However, Vogt also violated the Tucson City Charter by soliciting city workers on their official city e-mail accounts during work hours.

Vogt’s first two pieces of political messaging have revealed to the people of Tucson what his candidacy is all about, said Pima County Democratic Party Chair Jeff Rogers.

“First he announces his candidacy with a menacing email, trying to extort Council member Shirley Scott out of the race,” Rogers said. “Next he wastes city employee time to work on his campaign, illegally hits them up for money and spams the rest of the list.”

Moreover, he should get his e-mail lists the old fashioned way: Asking people nicely if they want to be on the list and allowing them to unsubscribe (the e-mail wouldn't let readers opt off the list).

“Republicans may want to think twice before getting behind this crop of candidates, who simply don’t want to do the work required to build a competent campaign,” Rogers said. “Their poorly run campaigns demonstrate how unqualified the candidates truly are.”         

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