Who is (601) 324-5142?

An interesting development this weekend comes from some tips to Kudzu, suggesting that more than one community has received anonymous calls from a local number push-polling false narratives. Reports are that these calls relate to Democratic candidates across the state, unchecked by Delbert Hosemann, who apparently has things to do other than his job.

The caller does not identify themselves as a particular person or organization (a legal no-no).

The anonymous caller, whose voicemail sounds to be a young man in his 20's with no additional information about his whereabouts, seems to have perturbed a number of Mississippians in recent months. A quick google search shows that this Google Voice number has been active since at least 2014, and pesters folks a good bit.  Here are a few comments from 800Notes.com:

Caller ID shows it's from McComb, MS. Called 6 times today between noon & 3pm. Tried to call it back once & reached a male's voice message that didn't identify himself (or company); just said "Thank you for calling, please leave your name & number...", so I just hung up.

- April 9, 2014

I have received 6 calls in 3 days. Political survey. I told them on first call I was not interested and wished them a good day. Did not respond to call again until the fourth call and explained I had received 4 calls and she immediately became rude and said I had to be mistaken.  I assured her I was  DEFINITELY not mistaken as I was staring at my 4 mistakes on caller ID.  She loudly explained that wasn't possible and rudely hung up on me. Guess she has no sense of humor.

- July 18, 2015

 Had 16 calls from it hanging up within 5 minutes today. No one there when I call back

- September 4, 2015

In July, Secretary Hosemann called anonymous mailers directed at Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler "gutless."

We here at Cottonmouth are holding our breaths in regards to whether that applies to attacks on Democrats.

Any additional information or other tips to Cottonmouth/Kudzu can be emailed kudzu@cottonmouthblog.com.