RoboFlop: Coloradans rudely awakened with a Hazy Shade of Winter

If a candidate for political office in your area called you at, say, 4 in the morning asking for your vote, would you give it to him come election time?

Democratic congressional candidate Bill Winter will find out later this year after 6,000 Coloradans received a rude awaking from robo-calling gone wrong from his office. In fact, Winter himself received his own robo-call at 1:17 a.m.

But the fun doesn't stop there.

Democratic candidate Bill Ritter, which sounds more than a little like Winter -- especially at 4 a.m. -- caught heat as well, as dozens of people called his office to complain. Making matters worse, his misguided staffers referring angry callers to Trailhead Group, a Republican political committee. Ritter's drones assumed that the calls were designed to discredit their gubernatorial candidate.

I'm not sure who the bigger goof is ... the candidate whose right-hand folks can't figure out how to make calls to potential constituents while they are awake, or the similarly named governor-wannabe's staff of frat boy pranksters who immediately rerouted complaint calls to their opponent.

For what it's worth, the Denver Post reports that Winter has vowed that he would not use automated calling again in his campaign.