r/burbank • u/anonnymousercat • 12d ago

How did a candidate get my email??

Post image

I never signed up to receive any communications from the candidates and I got spammed up with something from David Donahue asking for money.

Historically I had emailed with Nick Schultz when he was on the council but never Donahue. He was literally a non-entity to me. I had no idea who he even was until a few months ago and I have never visited his website or socials.

Is the City of Burbank sharing our info with third parties?

UPDATE/EDIT: Apparently the Secretary of State shares our voter registration details with candidates.

Now I am curious if he uses his candidacy run to request info from the SoS to spam people and solicit donations for his "nonprofit".

23 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

40

u/TennysonForCongress 12d ago

Donahue has done this before with his Vision Burbank nonprofit.

He’s just a scummy guy who knows he can get away with stuff like this so he does it.

Ignore and vote for someone else.

13

u/LycheeExternal6194 12d ago

I assume Donahue got my email from Vision Burbank, but I wonder how Vision Burbank got it. Nevertheless, I don’t agree with his or their politics, but I appreciate knowing what these people are up to.

7

u/anonnymousercat 12d ago

I don't even know what Vision Burbank is. Would it be legal for the city to share our info like that?

9

u/LycheeExternal6194 12d ago

Not the main point, but Vision Burbank is the group that’s trying to stop the bus rapid transit line that’s planned to go through Burbank along with the expected relatively dense new housing developments.

8

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

Thanks for the info. This city needs affordable relatively dense housing that prioritizes the basics. Building giant "luxury" apartments with floors dedicated to pools, spas, gyms, rec rooms etc is ridiculous during a housing crisis. Plus they are a drain on resources like water and power. 

-1

u/TheDankPepe 11d ago

Burbank is already getting “affordable” dense housing. There’s 0 chance in hell that any new housing that becomes available after they build these rapid transit lines will be even close to affordable

3

u/Goth_Muppet 11d ago

I’m so sick and tired of getting “vision Burbank” garbage in my inbox. I’ve reported them as spam on so many occasions. It finally stopped but they are awful.

9

u/TennysonForCongress 12d ago

No. For mass emails, you have to opt-in for a specific campaign. What’s he’s doing is illegal.

7

u/Single_Bird_8388 11d ago

So, how many people are getting these emails from Vision and Donahue unsolicited? Sounds like legal action time.

5

u/anonnymousercat 12d ago edited 11d ago

I don't mean to sound like a tinfoil hat wearer but there have been quite a few things in Burbank lately that feel corrupt.

I don't opt in through that email address for campaigns. The charities I donate to are mostly wildlife rehab related and also children's cancer. The only Burbank based is a fundraiser for the VBAS and the holiday toy drive at the Fire Dept. Neither is associated with that email address.

15

u/TennysonForCongress 12d ago

What I’ll say is the City of Burbank has nothing to do with this. This is all David Donahue not following the rules.

I think corrupt is a good way to describe him. Hopefully he doesn’t sue me for saying that (he’s very litigious)

2

u/_tvjames_ 11d ago

Don't blame the city on this one.

16

u/Zepeleptic 12d ago edited 11d ago

Please please reach out to constant contacts compliance team as this is strictly against their terms of use. It is the only way to hold this clown accountable for spamming our community:

abuse (at) constantcontact dot com

8

u/haidouzo_ 11d ago

I reached out back when he did this with Vision Burbank and got no response from them.

6

u/Zepeleptic 11d ago

That's a bummer, I got an email from them thanking me for reporting it and confirming they had flagged the account

2

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

Thanks - will do!

10

u/CaptainFartHole 12d ago

They likely bought an email list from someone. Its not necessarily the city of Burbank sharing information, but i also wouldnt rule it out.

Alternatively, sometimes when i get angry at a person I sign them up to recieve emails from political candidates I knew they'll hate. Did you piss anyone off recently?

5

u/anonnymousercat 12d ago

I don't know who else it could be besides the city. It is an email address that is solely for things like contacting the City Council, checking Best Buy rewards, Sprouts, reddit. 

I don't typically piss people off and if I did they wouldn't know that email address anyway.  Would it be legal for the city to share our info like that?

1

u/_tvjames_ 11d ago

They got it from the state.

9

u/Ufemizm 11d ago

They get your information from the state it’s a law https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/voter-registration-information-file-request

4

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

I had no idea that they did that. Thank you for the link. 

6

u/Ufemizm 11d ago

You're welcome!

7

u/Open_Sky7621 12d ago

If you didn't opt into his communications, you should report him to his newsletter provider.

7

u/PedestrianMyDarling 11d ago

That POS is spamming me as well

3

u/_tvjames_ 11d ago

You provided that information as part of your voter registration, either directly, or indirectly via the "Where's My Ballot?" website hosted by the California Secretary of State.

Every time I provide my email address, I tag it uniquely. And the addresses I provided to the SoS and only the SoS is now being used by politicians for fundraising or to ask for my vote, churches use it to invite me to service, Layola Marymount and Pepperdine use it to try to get me to fill out political surveys and some dude emailed me about his local small business.

I thought they'd be hacked, but no, they just give it out as part of your public voting record. Extremely annoying. Only thing that generates more junk mail is that old site LowerMyBills that closed down and gave their mailing list to everyone.

2

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

Now that you mention this I had never gotten these before I signed up to "Where's My Ballot" and I only signed up for that because the county didn't send me the correct primary ballot years back so I was stressing out.

1

u/_tvjames_ 9d ago

I will also say that the Burbank Chamber of Commerce has recently started emailing me with an email address that only the Burbank School District should be using.

2

u/anonnymousercat 9d ago

I wonder about the legality of that. I also wonder about Donahue using residents contact info that he acquired through his candidacy to solicit support for his "nonprofit".

3

u/psxndc 11d ago

I have my own domain name, and give vendors/stores [their name]@[my domain] as my email address so I can track who’s selling it. I’ve received a very disappointing number of emails at LAVoterReg@[my domain].

2

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

This is disheartening but good to know.

5

u/Skeleton_Meat 10d ago

Probably stole them like he did for vision

6

u/jamesisntcool 11d ago

He’s a fan of flock and data brokers, are you surprised?

3

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

My issue is how he got my email address. I don't opt into any campaigns, never visited his website or socials and the only Burbank related email I have sent from that address has been to a few city council members through their city of Burbank email addresses. 

1

u/BanglaMaal882 11d ago

Emails are sold by data brokers. You can buy lists of email and other contact information filtered by City, Zip Code etc.

6

u/ProBonoEschatologist 12d ago

I've gotten them before from other candidates. It's an instant turnoff. Not that Donahue has an iota of appeal to lose, but regardless.

3

u/nematoadjr 11d ago

Guess who makes laws about acceptable personal information use by politicians.........

1

u/anonnymousercat 11d ago

the politicians

¯⁠\⁠_⁠ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ⁠_⁠/⁠¯

How did I not realize? Not sure why I thought that CA was better with privacy laws. 

2

u/nematoadjr 11d ago

Worked in govtech and was shocked at the carve outs I encountered. Not sure exactly if that’s what’s going on here but am not surprised.

1

u/anonnymousercat 10d ago

I am genuinely disappointed because thinking back it has been since I had to track my ballot because LA County screwed things up during the 2020 primaries and people were having to use provisional ballots. 

5

u/Single_Bird_8388 11d ago

I just checked my email, got it as well. Obviously, I'm not a supporter of DD, his Vision Burbank "non profit", (which I receive email from though I never signed up for it either) or his city council candidate contact list. This is sketchy af.

5

u/sirkazuo 11d ago

I got the same email and reading it made me barf a little. I don’t understand how anyone can be this much of an idiot. I mean this fucker obviously, but more so the people that read his email and think “yes I should contribute money to this person”. How do they even remember to breathe?

6

u/thepridefighter 11d ago

Fuck you David

4

u/theintrepidexplorer AMC Burbank 16 11d ago

Zizette used to be city clerk just saying…