Civitas not behind New York robocalls

The Civitas Institute says it's become "the victim of either a very bad mistake or a malicious act."

Voters around the state have been receiving robocalls urging them to "vote today" for New York state Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder, a first-term Democrat from Queens who won a special election to his seat last September.  

The recorded call doesn't carry a "paid for by" message - and the caller ID shows the conservative's think-tank's number. 

"We have nothing to do with this," said Civitas communications director Jim Tynen. "We don’t really know what’s going on." 

Civitas's Susan Myrick said her sister-in-law had received some of the calls. She played us a recording of the message. 

The calls started late last week, according to Myrick. "At first, it was just calling and ringing and hanging up," she said. "Then it started leaving a message."  

Even in New York, it's not clear why a GOTV call would be going out now - that primary isn't till April 24th.

Assemblyman Goldfeder's office couldn't readily explain the glitch, either. I'll update here when they call back.