I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A push poll targeting Richard “R.J.” Berry is going out to voters just weeks before the mayoral election according to KOB-TV. Both other candidates, Martin Chavez and Richard Romero, deny being behind the telephone calls, but the Berry campaign is blaming Chavez.
According to KOB-TV, the telephone calls consist of “three quick questions about campaign ethics and honesty.”
And no one is ‘fessing up to being behind the calls:
A spokesperson for Richard Romero’s campaign said the calls were inappropriate and something they would never do.
Chavez campaign spokesperson Joan Griffin repeatedly said they didn’t know whose poll it was, but at the end of the message she added:
“I believe that polls are not required to have disclaimers,” she said.
All advertisements in city elections are required to have disclosure —but is are these phone calls considered an advertisement? Tough question.
The Berry campaign maintains that the Chavez campaign is behind the calls, as the questions echo themes in a campaign mailer sent by the Chavez campaign.
So what exactly is a push poll? As the Mystery Pollster, Mark Blumenthal, explains:
Many organizations have posted definitions (AAPOR, NCPP, CMOR, CBS News, Campaigns and Elections, Wikipedia), but the important thing to remember is that a “push poll” is not a poll at all. It’s a fraud, an attempt to disseminate information under the guise of a legitimate survey…
Imagine for a moment that you are an ethically challenged political operative ready to play the hardest of hardball. Perhaps you want to spread an untruth about an opponent or “rumor” so salacious or farfetched that you dare not spread it yourself (such as the classic lie about John McCain’s supposed “illegitimate black child”). Or perhaps your opponent has taken a “moderate” position consistent with that of your boss, but likely to inflame the opponent’s base (such as Republican voting to raise taxes or a Democrat supporting “Bush’s wiretapping program”).
You want to spread the rumor or exploit the issue without leaving fingerprints. So you hire a telemarketer to make phone calls that pretend to be a political poll. You “ask” only a question or two aimed at spreading the rumor (Example: “Would you be more or less likely to support John McCain if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black?”) You want to make as many calls as quickly as possible, so you do not bother with the time consuming tasks performed by most real pollsters, such as asking a lot of questions or asking to speak to a specific or random individual within the household.
Again, the proof is in the intent: If the sponsor intends to communicate a message to as many voters as possible rather than measure opinions or test messages among a sample of voters, it qualifies as a “push poll.”
