Mister Tredyffrin and Friends

Have you ever been treated to a push poll?
Leonard Boasberg, Democratic Committeeperson in E-3, received an interesting phone call the other day. Here is his report.

The young woman on the phone said she was doing a survey of opinion and would I answer a few questions?

Who’s sponsoring it?

Venture Data, she said.

What’s Venture Data?

It’s a company that surveys opinion.

Who’s sponsoring the survey?

I don’t know. (And she probably doesn’t)

OK, go ahead.

First, some questions about you. We do this in order to get a representative sample. Your age.

I knocked off a few years.

Are you a registered voter?

Yes.

Republican or Democrat?

Democrat.

Strong Democrat, moderate Democrat?

Strong.

Do you think Governor Rendell is doing an excellent job, fair job, not so good, bad?

Excellent.

What about the Pennsylvania Legislature. Good job or a bad job.

I can’t answer that question.

If the 2008 election were held now and George W. Bush was on the ballot, would you vote for him?

Hell, no.

I’m going to read you the names of a number of people and ask you about them.

Go ahead.

She names the Republican Chester County commissioners. Very favorable, somewhat favorable, not very favorable, unfavorable?

Very unfavorable.

Carole Rubley: Do you have a very favorable opinion of her, moderately favorable, somewhat unfavorable, very unfavorable?

Hmmm.

Carole Aichele. Would you definitely vote for her, probably vote for her, probably not, definitely not?

Absolutely not.

If you knew that Carole Aichele led the effort to save X thousands of acres of open space in Chester County, would that make you more likely to vote for her?

(Ah-ha! Now I see where this is heading) Never.

She names a couple of people I’d never heard of. One sounded like a Republican candidate, or somebody planning to be a Republican candidate. Marvelous fellow. Splendid record of service. Also pro-life. Knowing all this, would you be likely to vote for him?

No.

Andy Dinniman: If you knew that he favored permitting felons to vote in Pennsylvania, would you be inclined to vote for him?

Yes.

If you knew that in his time in the state Senate he has only introduced one minor bill, would you be inclined to vote for him?

Yes.

Do you consider yourself a strong liberal, a moderate liberal, a moderate conservative, or a strong conservative?

Hmm. Make it moderate conservative, what the hell.

* * *

According to its website, “Venture Data L.L.C. is a survey research company based in Salt Lake City, Utah.”

“…we make it clear that Venture Data L.L.C. has never conducted nor participated in what is commonly referred to as ‘push polling.’ Our activities are strictly limited to conducting telephone survey research wherein we gather the opinions of a limited number of representative voters and deliver that data to our clients. We adhere to strict methodological standards.”

– Leonard Boasberg

Let the victimized campaign know when you receive a push poll call like this.
Despite claims on the Venture Data web site, I found plenty of other documented examples of them doing Republican dirty work. Here’s a blog entry about calls pushing Rick Santorum. Here’s one that targeted Joe Sestak. And you won’t believe this - here’s one in support of Mark Foley!

Plenty more with a simple google search.

Help us clear the air. Not everyone will recognize the lies when they hear them.