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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
López Obrador Hopes Hot Line Will Raise Cash
 Wire services
| | The call will cost 60 pesos no matter how long they stay on the line. A normal local call costs about 1.3 pesos in Mexico. |
The front-runner ahead of next summer's presidential elections said Tuesday he is dialing up a new approach to fundraising: a 1-900, charge-by-the-minute telephone hot line.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who stepped down as mayor of Mexico City to run with the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), said supporters across this country can listen to a message he recorded for up to two minutes, but that the call will cost them 60 pesos (US5.5) no matter how long they stay on the line. A normal local call costs about 1.3 pesos in Mexico.
López Obrador said at a news conference from his campaign headquarters in the nation's capital he hopes to receive 10 million calls, generating 600 million pesos (US55.2 million).
"We need funding for gasoline, hotel charges, for food and other basics" said López Obrador, who has been on a Mexico-wide campaign tour since shortly after leaving his post as mayor on July 29. "The people are going to help us out, I'm sure, with this telephone donation system."
President Vicente Fox is barred from seeking a second, six-year term and most polls put López Obrador in the lead to replace him in the July 2006 race.
López Obrador said the hot line would allow him to generate new campaign funds without taking donations from large interest groups.
"We don't want to make it to the presidency with our hands and feet tied," he said. "We want it to be the support of the citizens that carries us to the presidency so that we can serve the fundamental needs of our people."
Campaign Donations
Federico Arreola, a director of López Obrador's campaign finances, said up to 1,000 pesos (US92) in calls can be placed from a single phone line.
"The system won't allow more than that," Arreola said, though how additional calls will be curtailed wasn't clear.
He said half of the money López Obrador hopes to generate will go to the campaign and the other half will finance the cost of the hot line, which will be run using infrastructure rented from fixed-line communications giant Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex.
Calls from pay phones, office lines used by more than one person and cellular phones will not be permitted, Arreola said, adding that campaign officials hope López Obrador supporters will call from their home phones. |
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