Who Is Push-Polling Negatives About Nick Fish?
Sam Adams' Campaign Says It's Not Them
Earlier this week, we received email from someone saying that their household had received a telephone call from "someone claiming to be conducting a survey" who asked several questions regarding the City Council race between Sam Adams and Nick Fish.
According to the email, the questions asked if the voter would be more or less likely to vote for Fish if they "knew that he just recently moved to town and doesn't really care about Portland" or "that he is beholden to special interests and doesn't really care about people like you." In addition, the caller apparently insinuated that Fish has lied on his resume and placed false statements on his website.
As a general rule, polls conducted in such a manner tend to be referred to as "push polls" because in part they are designed to plant the negative charges they reference in the minds of the voter. While a push poll may actually serve as a survey, it also is a very specific campaign tactic against an opponent.
Since the email we received asserted that the responsible party must have been the Adams campaign, we of course asked the Adams campaign if they were conducting this push poll.
"These are not questions the campaign has asked or would ask," was the response from a representative of the Adams campaign. They went on to call the poll's questions "nonsensical" and added: "There's no relationship between time spent in any one locale and one's concern for it."
Cynics that we are, and cognizant of the existence in the world of politics of "non-denial denials," we pressed a bit more and asked if the Adams campaign was categorically denying any involvement in or knowledge of an apparent push poll containing negative portrayals of their opponent. Their response: "Sam's campaign did not ask these questions, nor do we know of any other group that asked these questions."
As of post-time, we had not yet received comment from the Fish campaign about the mysterious poll.
So we open up to our readers the obvious next question: Who exactly is out there somewhere running what appears to be an obvious push poll planting negatives about Fish in the minds of those voters who answer their phones and agree to participate in the survey?
September 03, 2004 at 11:48 PM
..or perhaps a better question, who stands to gain from such a tactic?... aside from the obvious, Mr. Adams... Most likely the answer to both question would be one in the same...
September 03, 2004 at 11:51 PM
Well, I have no idea on the question of who else out there could possibly benefit, unless it's some Adams-supporting group that simply has not told the Adams campaign what they are doing.
So I'll re-ask your question: Who else out there could possibly be thinking they would benefit from an anti-Fish push poll?
September 03, 2004 at 11:58 PM
Steve Duin (not to be confused with television "personality" Steve DUNN) did a story on this a while back, about a such poll that involved questions about the "other" race, that between Potter and Francesconi. In this article Duin mentions a "research" group, McGuire Research, who is known to conduct this type of polling, who would not disclose any specific information about the content of their (at the time) current polls. Interesting read if nothing else...
September 03, 2004 at 11:59 PM
oops, the linkage.....
Editor's note: We turned a plain-text URL into an actual link on the word "linkage" in the above, for ease-of-use.
September 04, 2004 at 12:05 AM
...wish I could edit/add to my previous posts.. I feel like a comment whore... but here is yet another story identifying McGuire Reseach as an outfit who handles this type of "work" (I am using my sarcasm quotes far too much tonight).... this time from WW ... sorry for spamming the hell out of the board :)
Editor's note: We turned a plaint-text URL which appeared between "WW" and "... sorry" into an actual link on the words "this time from WW" for ease of use.
September 04, 2004 at 12:11 AM
FYI, see Duin's follow-up to that article, in which he got the Francesconi campaign to concede some things regarding polling.
September 04, 2004 at 12:21 AM
Did your emailer, who recieved the call, not catch the name of the organization conducting the poll? If not, is it possible to contact them and ask?
September 04, 2004 at 12:27 AM
The emailer in question did not take the call directly. It was a family member, who reportedly remembers the name of the calling organization being a set of initials, but does not recall what they were.
September 04, 2004 at 12:34 AM
..but of course... Too bad... without some trail from an individual who has received one of these calls, some documented link between the Adams campaign and the responsible pollsters, or a magical information fairy dropping the info into Portlanders' hot little hands, it is tough to produce anything more valuable than mere speculation.
B!X, I do believe I shall enjoy the rest of my frosty Black and Tan (Guinness (extra stout) and Bass (pale)) and allow you to work diligently on uncovering the individual(s) behind this push poll.. ;)
September 07, 2004 at 01:34 PM
Earlier this week, we received email from someone saying that their household had received a telephone call from "someone claiming to be conducting a survey" who asked several questions regarding the City Council race between Sam Adams and Nick Fish.
The emailer in question did not take the call directly. It was a family member, who reportedly remembers the name of the calling organization being a set of initials, but does not recall what they were.
Isn't this called a rumour?
Isn't the equally compelling question - Who would benefit from spreading this rumour other than the Fish campaign?
And then who other than Sam Adams campaign would benefit from suggesting that the Fish campaign was spreading false rumours.
And then ... oh never mind.
September 07, 2004 at 08:56 PM
You know with the way Portland reacts to negative campaigns, If I was Nick Fish I would hire someone to do this a blame it on Adams..school of Karl Rove.