banning automated political phone calls

A bill banning automated political phone calls is before a Senate panel today.
Automatically dialed phone calls already are illegal in the state, but the calls were made frequently anyway during the presidential primary season.
Pickens Senator Larry Martin says he wants to close any loophole in the law.
His bill would make the recorded messages illegal even if a live operator is involved in the call.
Martin says he got fed up with the robotic phone calls that bombarded his home before the Republican primary in January.
But officials in the state Republican and Democratic parties say they'll fight the proposal and think federal communications law trumps the state law anyway.
Attorney general spokesman Mark Plowden says the current law has too much gray area on what's legal.