Lest I forget in all this Legislative and Inaugural hubbub, I had an interesting conversation with Cory Ann Ellis earlier this week about a strange interaction she had with the office of Senator M. Michael Rounds.
The Brookings entrepreneur, Army Reservist, mom, and (her favorite word) outlier told me she called Senator Rounds on January 10 to discuss her concerns about losing the protections of the Affordable Care Act. The Senator’s Washington staff took down her name, address, and e-mail, and promised to respond shortly.
Ellis received an e-mail from Senator Rounds shortly. It was full of the usual Rounds-insurance-salesman bushwah—ACA “not a result of deliberative action,” even though it went through over a year of pretty public debate; not a “bipartisan solution,” even though President Obama borrowed much of the plan from Republican Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health insurance reform; “fatally flawed,” even though it brought the number of uninsured Americans to a record low and more Americans signed for ACA Marketplace coverage and approve of ACA overall now than when the program began.
But Ellis smelled something else fishy about Senator Rounds’s response. It was addressed to Ellis by her full name, including her middle name, which she did not give over the phone. It was sent to her son’s e-mail address, which she did not provide to the Senator’s staff. Ellis’s son has never provided that e-mail address to Senator Rounds’s office; Ellis says her son has never contacted any elected official and has zero political involvement. (She’s working on changing that.)
Curious, Ellis called the office back. She asked about her son’s e-mail address; Rounds staff couldn’t explain how that address had gotten into their system. She asked about the use of her middle name; Rounds staff said something about how birth certificates are public record.
Umm… really? The South Dakota Department of Health says birth records are not open for public inspection. You can’t just go browsing birth certificates; you have to file an application and pay a fee.
But whatever it takes, I have to wonder why Senator Rounds’s staff would even mention, let alone go look for, a birth certificate for a constituent who calls with a policy question. Maybe Ellis’s experience is an outlier: would Senator Rounds really pay staff (oops, pardon me—would we the taxpayers really pay staff) to pass a workday trying to find a birth certificate to verify that the South Dakota voter who just called and gave them her name and address is a real person? If staff are doing background checks just to answer a simple constituent question, what does it take to get Senator Rounds to actually do something, $1,000 contribution?
Ellis was dissatisfied with both the response and the strange way it came to her from Senator Rounds. The only consolation I could offer is that we can sweep Rounds out right along with our unsatisfactory President… four long years from now.
I doubt if they checked birth certificates. There are online sources with lots of information on people. The taxpayers probably pay for Rounds to have a subscription to Lexis or some other service that they use to pull up info on people. Still it’s disconcerting to have your congress member’s staff researching you before answering your question.
Well done Cory. I believe this incident was meant to intimidate Cory Ellis into stopping her calls and inquiries about policy issues. It is important that this info get out widely.
Rounds and Thune have both sent me unsolicited emails on occasion even though I never made any inquiry from them.
It isn’t a regular practice but I have wondered how and why they need my email.
Sen. Rounds is now a wheel on the cyber security subcommittee. He can hack your phone and e-mail and call it research. Using citizen info not given to an authority when addressing that citizen is an old KGB tool to instill fear in the populace. It worked this time and it will continue. Be wary of Sen. Rounds.
Whatever the source of information about Cory Ellis, probably one of those subscription online document searchers, this incident stands in contrast to Rounds’ attentiveness as governor, when he disavowed any knowledge about who and what was going on in his Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the EB-5 scandal.
Could it have been from voter registration records? They may check to see if someone is actually registered in the state.
Rounds needs to be voted out.
I didn’t trust him when he was Governor, as I felt there were too many deceiving actions. He claimed there was no structural deficit in the state budget, when in fact he presided over seven years with a structural deficit each year. Oh, he balanced the budget as required by the State Constitution by back filling it with reserve dollars. He vetoed the Insurance Subrogation Bill that passed both the House and Senate. He preferred to keep the Insurance Companies whole, while leaving the victim holding the bag. He has not be forthright with his involvement with the EB 5 fiasco. His Senatorial Campaign was disheartening with some many deceptive statements and that disappointment continues with him in Washington.
Creepy!!??
Mlarson, I check Ellis on my Vote605 app, and I get no email address. Ellis says the person on the phone specifically said “birth certificate.”
Cory,
Thank you for covering this. It still seems so odd to me.
Rorschach, “The staffer specifically told me that birth certificates are public record.”
Keep in mind this wasn’t just an unsolicited email to me. This was a response back to me through my son’s email address. In fact, it was my step-son who has a different last name than me and a Gmail email while mine is a .mac.
Porter Lansing, I hadn’t thought of the cyber link prior. Good thing the scare didn’t work. I call more often now.
CA – You’re welcome. I made calls and wrote e-mails today, also. On the subject of block grants for Medicaid. I have some disabled friends that could face hardships.
Porter, Punkin head is coming for the guns, with the NRA’s blessing. I knew it and so did you. You cannot have a regime unless you control the guns, all of them. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824080766288228352