Mary Anne Baldwin, candidate for the Raleigh City Council, has taken a lot of heat for being too closely allied with development interests, heat she claims is unfair. Why then, I wonder, are her robocalls coming from 414-208-1097, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin number registered to "Mortgage Services."

My wife reported a pro-Baldwin robocall from that number this morning. Now, there is nothing wrong with robocalls, but the company one keeps speaks volumes about the positions one might take on important issues likely to come before the board. So let's look at the company Ms. Baldwin is keeping.

414-208-1097 is a number associated with unsolicited business calls to homeowners, offering them amazing rates for mortgages. The Caller Id states that the number is registered to "Mortgage Services." Could this be Mortgage Services - America's Most Progressive Lender" the same company that keeps repeatedly spamming my fax machine with offers for "the lowest fixed mortgage . . . 1.25% 40yr Amortization ARM."

Now, this is a blatantly misleading pitch, since an ARM is by definition not fixed, but let's put that issue aside. The real question here is why is Ms. Baldwin using the spam call capability of a private business to run her robocall operation? And how are they being accounted for?

I decided to try to call the number, hoping against hope that I would get someone with the Baldwin campaign. Calling the number reaches a "full" mailbox for "Apex Mortgage." Now we're getting somewhere.

Apex Mortgage is a company that the Triangle Business Journal reported on October 5, 2007, had lost its business license in North Carolina and a handful of other states earlier this year" and "had been hit with suspensions or cease-and-desist orders by regulators in Alabama, Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, Georgia and Massachusetts."

Now, I am going to call Ms. Baldwin's campaign tomorrow and get her side of this, but in the meantime, ponder this:

Why would a city council candidate in Raleigh, North Carolina need to use a Wisconsin phone number affiliated with one or both of a pair of questionable mortgage companies to do her robocalling?

Baldwin is likely to be in a runoff with Russ Stephenson and Paul Anderson for one of two at large seats on the Raleigh City Council if early returns hold up. It seems to me this is a question Raleigh voters might want to know the answer to before they vote again.