Candidate Busted for Sending Cell Phone Spam in Opponent’s Name   - 1,946 Views,

Just how stupid do you have to be (or how badly do you have to want to win an election, although the two apparently aren’t mutually exclusive) to send spam to thousands of your constituents?

To their cell phones.

Between midnight and four in the morning.

On election day.

Faking the “from” name as that of your opponent.

Aunty says “pretty stupid”.

And that’s exactly how stupid Dan Avila, candidate for City Council in Thousand Oaks, California, was this past November. He sent out cell phone spam to thousands of Thousand Oaks voters, in the name of his opponent, incumbent Bob Wilson.

As a result, Wilson received dozens of angry calls from rudely awakened voters who believed that he had sent them the wake-up call.

Fortunately, the good people of Thousand Oaks, perhaps not quite as stupid, didn’t elect Avila. However, they also didn’t elect Wilson, and who knows how much Avila’s stunt may have affected the final vote.

Now, instead of a four-year term in office, Avila is looking at a three-year term in prison.