For the politically uninitiated, the “push poll” is a tricky little campaign tool designed to influence a citizen’s opinions by way of an opinion poll. A prime example occurred during the 2000 Presidential campaign, when pollsters called up folks in South Carolina were asked, “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”
Now, John McCain had not fathered an illegitimate black child. And on the face of it, the question doesn’t accuse him of having fathered an illegitimate black child. But certainly some who were polled might have been led to think he had, because why else would someone ask?
There is some push-polling going on in our area, connected to the District 37 House race. It could be coming from anywhere, the people who do this stuff aren’t forthcoming about their identity. And, apparently, they aren’t quite clear about who’s running against Paul Welday on August 5…
The Difference Between a Push-Poll and a Push-Paul
The phone rang last night, it was a polling organization. They wanted to know whether I was planning to vote in the August 5 election, and whether I was voting for Vicki Barnett or Paul Welday. Well, if they’re dumb enough to call me and ask that question, I thought I ought to have some fun with them. First I asked if those were the only two options. They said there were some other candidates, but they were only polling on these two. I followed up with “I heard Vicki Barnett and Paul Welday are dating, is that true?” Stunned silence. “I really don’t know sir.” “Do either of these candidates have a plan to do something about these roundabouts?” More silence. “Where do they stand on the Streetscape proposal?” “I’m not sure sir, they only gave us these questions.”
Polling like this is somewhere between clever, sneaky and dirty. They’re calling Republican households asking if you are supporting a Democratic candidate or their choice for the Republican slot, while not mentioning that there are two other Republican candidates. This is old school push-polling. The concept is to build name recognition – somewhat subliminally – while pretending your candidate is the front runner. Does this stuff really work? Sadly, sometimes it does. Hopefully not in this case.
In the end, I told them I hadn’t made up my mind yet. I wanted to say Paul Welday just to skew the results, but couldn’t bring myself to utter the words. We’re counting on the fact that people in this district are smart enough not to fall for this stuff. As always, please forward this to anyone you know in our district so they can be aware that this kind of polling is going on. Any polling you get isn’t from us. The questions are almost always leading, and should always be viewed with great skepticism. Our advice is that if you get a call like this, ask a lot of pointless questions about unrelated issues, and then lie when responding. After you hang up, smile, chuckle and think to yourself, “idiots”. Then go have a beer. You’ve earned it.
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* This excerpt from Richard Lerner’s e-mail newsletter was reprinted with permission. See the whole e-mail, which also relates an interesting tale of yard signs, by clicking HERE.
