AARP: Name in calls deceptive

OLYMPIA — AARP, one of the nation's largest consumer-advocacy organizations, says the Initiative 330 campaign improperly used the group's name to persuade older voters to support the measure.

AARP opposes I-330, a doctor-sponsored effort to sharply limit medical-malpractice awards. This week, however, more than 500,000 older voters received recorded phone calls from an AARP member urging them to vote for the initiative.

"We felt an obligation to demonstrate that not all seniors agree with AARP," said Tom Curry, executive director of the Washington State Medical Association, the driving force behind I-330.

But AARP has threatened to sue the medical association for trademark infringement.

"It is obvious that your organization's ... use of the AARP name is misleading and possibly deceptive," Michael Schuster, an attorney for AARP in Washington, D.C., said in a letter this week, asking Curry to stop invoking AARP's name.

The medical association said it had finished the calls before getting the letter from Schuster.

The voice on calls was that of Tacoma resident Frank Jenkins, who serves on the state Council on Aging and is a member of the Libertarian Party.

On the recorded message, Jenkins identified himself as a "longtime member of AARP and a senior active in health-care issues." He didn't mention medical malpractice, but said the state faces a crisis because "good doctors are leaving." He then urged a yes vote on I-330.

Jenkins said in an interview Thursday he was merely expressing his opinion.

"I'm an old fart, and I know a lot of doctors," said Jenkins. "I was trying to help them out."

Fithian, a retired physician, is a longtime member of the medical association but says he has been annoyed by what he described as a "scurrilous campaign."

"The strong implication of [the call] is that this came from AARP," said Fithian, a Democratic activist who has long opposed capping malpractice awards. "That's what bugged me so much. I knew that AARP had just recently come out with a position opposing [I-330]."

AARP has about 830,000 members in Washington state — about half of the residents older than 50, said local AARP lobbyist Lauren Moughon.

Moughon said the medical association's recorded phone messages are "clearly designed to make people think we support I-330, when we don't."

Curry acknowledged the calls were targeted at older voters, but scoffed at the AARP's charge of trademark infringement. He said there was nothing wrong with having Jenkins identify himself as an AARP member.

"We didn't understand that joining AARP constituted a gag order," Curry said.

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com