norm-notice-collageNorm Coleman told donors worried about the leak of personal and financial data from his campaign Web site to cancel their credit cards and call him with questions. A Coleman contributor in Atlanta who did just that — shelling out $16 for an expedited replacement card — tells the Minnesota Independent that no one answers the phone at the number Coleman gave.

Coleman’s Peachtree State supporter, Andrew Dempsey, says he gave twice. The first donation landed him on the database that the campaign left in a publicly accessible place on its Web site in January. His question for Coleman: Is his second donation, made in February with a different credit card, also cause for concern?

But all he gets at the number Coleman offered for worried donors to call with questions is a recorded message. (Other donors have expressed the same gripe to MnIndy.) So he called me to ask my opinion of his situation, since I was the one from whom he learned about the database breach on Wednesday.

In fact Dempsey still hasn’t received notification about it from Coleman, he says. He read Coleman’s donor message at the MnIndy Web site. It’s a failing that could yet get the Coleman campaign into hot water. State law requires organizations to notify anyone whose private information they hold whenever such data leaks are disclosed, but the campaign didn’t tell its donors after the January breach.

MnIndy continues getting return e-mails and calls after contacting  around 600 people listed on the database made public by Wikileaks.org this week. Many say our e-mail was the first they’ve heard of the data leak. We posted a sampling of reactions on Wednesday that we got by phone and e-mail — ranging from “I owe you” to “Go pound sand.”

Now Wikileaks is getting into the supporter-reaction business. Here’s an e-mail from Wikileaks.org received today by a person on Coleman’s database of supporters (as opposed to donors, a list that likewise leaked from the campaign site):

From: Wikileaks Press Office
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Subject: Media inquiry, re: Senator Coleman leak
To: undisclosed-recipients

Dear Coleman subscriber. The national media would like your feedback in relation to the Senator Norm Coleman leak.

Your email address and personal details appear on a list of 51,000 Coleman supporters / donors / contacts accidentally released by the Coleman Campaign on January 28, 2009.

The list:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Senator_Norm_Coleman:_detailed_list_of_51%2C641_supporters_and_web-site_users%2C_28_Jan_2009

Background context:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Big_Bad_Database_of_Senator_Norm_Coleman

Uni of M. statistical analysis of leaked Coleman Donors:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Coleman%27s_Compromised_Donors:_Where_They_Came_From

You are on the list because you gave the Coleman for Senate Campaign your email address OR because Senator Coleman purchased your email address from another
mailinglist.

As you might be aware, the accidental leak by the Coleman Campaign has attracted national media interest this week:

http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=wikileaks&scoring=d

Several national news organizations, such as the AP, and local organizations in MN have asked us for your feedback. Rather than have the these organizations mail you and clutter your inbox, we have all agreed to to pool resources and ask you for this one-time comment.

We will publicly release all comments longer than one paragraph. If you ask for your comment to be anonymous, or “not for attribution,” your identity will be kept strictly confidential and removed before it is passed onto other media groups.

We will release all comments longer than one paragraph, ordered by quality of writing. No comments, provided they are over one paragraph will be excluded.

Q: What is your reaction to the Coleman leak?

Thank you, and have a nice weekend,

Jay Lim,
Wikileaks Press Office
Sunshine Press
Stockholm – Nairobi – Washington