For the fourth time in as many weeks, I received a political text message on my cellphone. “Hi, Ralph. It’s Lisa with the Betsy Sweet for US Senate campaign. We’re gearing up for the new year and we wanted to check in.”

Oh, nice, I thought, it’s so nice of Lisa to check in on a disabled person in a wheelchair in Old Orchard Beach wondering how I am.

Then she goes on to say, “If the election were held today, will Betsy be your first, second or third choice?” Seriously? Who the blazes is Betsy Sweet, and why does she have my cellphone number?

Congress made sure that the national Do Not Call list law exempted phone calls from any political candidate. Convenient, wouldn’t you say? Can you believe it? For the past four months, we have been inundated with political ads on radio and TV, and here we are with five months until the primary and 10 months to go until the general election.

There’s no way to watch the evening news without being forced to endure at least half a dozen 30-second to one-minute soundbites of political baloney! We cannot even watch a YouTube video without seeing someone running for president!

I suspect we will see a gradual increase in political advertising as we head into November. It is bad enough we see it in the media – couldn’t they just leave our cellphones alone?

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a national Do Not Call list for all political candidates?

Ralph Duquette

Old Orchard Beach

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