WataugaWatch

You know what push-polling is, right? It's when veiled operatives for one political party or the other calls you on the phone, posing as a legitimate polling org., and lies about the guy they want to beat. Got this e-mail just now from a Watauga County voter:

Just got an automated push-poll slamming Jimmy Love. It came from 404-225-5556. After asking a bunch of questions about party affiliation and likelihood of voting, it followed with questions like "Would you be more or less likely to vote for Jimmy Love if you knew he voted to raise taxes by $1 billion?" Then there was another one about his support for rapists...and at that point I hung up.

Jimmy Love? He's a member of the NC House representing Lee and Harnett counties. Don't know Mr. Love -- in fact, can't remember ever hearing of him -- but I'm certainly glad to know that he wanted to raise my taxes by $1 billion and helps facilitate rapists.

The number the call was coming from is a land-line based in Atlanta ... hired guns, no doubt, of the Republican House Caucus or the NC GOP or who-knows-who? But whoever IS paying the bill for this slime ought to look into the effectiveness of what their money is buying ... that a voter in House Dist. 93 is getting a call about House Dist. 51.

This attack on Jimmy Love by fake pollsters is undoubtedly only the tip of the oil-slick. If they're trashing Mr. Love, they're probably also trashing Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss. You betcha.

P.S. and incidentally: If Steve Goss's Watauga Republican opponent Dan Soucek is in fact "a small businessman," the NC Secretary of State's office has no record of his registering to do business. At least, so far as I could find.

Labels: Cullie Tarleton, Dan Soucek, Jimmy Love, push polling, Steve Goss

The Soucek push-poll asks voters, "Would you be more or less likely to vote for Cullie Tarleton if you knew...

"...he voted for the Home Transfer Tax?"

Fact: Cullie Tarleton did no such thing. He voted for the 2007 state budget which contained a provision to allow county commissioners to put the question to county voters. Apparently, to Soucek, allowing the voters to decide this matter is a grave sin

"...he voted against a high-risk health insurance pool?"

Fact: Cullie Tarleton actually co-sponsored the bill (H 265) that established the High Risk Insurance pool

"...he supports wind turbines on ridge tops?"

Fact: Cullie Tarleton came out against wind turbines on our mountain ridges when the Utilities Commission was considering a proposal to put some 28 or 29 400-foot tall turbines in Ashe County

"...he has been accused of pork barrel spending, to wit, getting money for the Ashe Airport runway extension when some guy in Raleigh says the money could be spent on other projects?"

Fact: This question defines the sleazy in push-polling (as opposed to just blatant lying: see above). "Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that someone had accused him of having an illegitimate black baby?" Gosh, you can always find a "someone" (even if you have to invent him) to accuse a faithful public servant of something awful. But Cullie Tarleton is actually proud of being able to get funding for the Ashe County airport, and if you ask around in Ashe County, you're not going to find many over there who consider it contemptible.

Apparently, in Dan Soucek's world, running for public office gives you license to lie.

Labels: Cullie Tarleton, Dan Soucek, push polling

Have received a much closer transcript of the Soucek poll from someone who was taking careful notes throughout, and with all due deference to the Poly Sci Prof who posted a comment on the thread below, it IS a classic push-poll meant to taint the waters:

The poll is being done by Fallon Public Opinion Research out of Columbus, Oh.

Questions are:

-Is our community going in the wrong or right direction?

-What's the most important issue - roads, crime, cost of living, managing housing and growth, improving business, lowering taxes?

-Do you approve of the job the legislature is doing?

-Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Easley, Cannon, Soucek, Tarleton?

-If election was today, would you vote McCain or Obama?

-If voting today, would you vote for Tarleton/Soucek/Cannon?

- More or less likely to vote for Tarleton if you knew:
He's a retired broadcaster?

Voted for the Home Transfer Tax?

Was the member of the Bd of Dir on a failed S & L that was fined by the feds?

Voted against a hi-risk health insurance pool?

Supports wind turbines on ridge tops?

Was a member of a committee studying how to reduce the high school drop out rate?

Is the incumbent?

Has been accused of pork-barrel spending, to wit, getting money for the Ashe Airport runway extension when some guy in Raleigh says the money could be spent on other projects?

-More or less likely to vote for Soucek if you knew:

He's a helicopter pilot and graduated from West Point?

Opposes the land transfer tax?

Is a small business owner?

Works for Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse?

(The questions stopped when I said "less" to that one, even though there were clearly more questions!)

-Do I consider myself a Dem/Repub/Something else?

-Then the same question a second time: If the election were today, would you vote for Tarleton/Souchek/Cannon?

Labels: Cullie Tarleton, Dan Soucek, push polling

Now Republican candidate Dan Soucek is jumping on the push-poll "solution": When your campaign is going nowhere, pick up the telephone and start lying.

Many Democrats have gotten a call from an outfit that claims to be non-partisan but is obviously pushing Dan Soucek against incumbent state Rep. Cullie Tarleton. The main points:

1. Dan is some kind of war hero. Since when did graduating from West Point make you a war hero, when you were never in any war zone?

2. The big lie: Soucek’s push-poll claims that Cullie Tarleton voted for a land transfer tax. Cullie Tarleton never voted for a land transfer tax. He voted for the budget in 2007 that contained a provision that county commissions could put the land transfer tax on the ballot and let the people decide if they wanted it. Jerry Butler used this same lie against Steve Goss in his own push-polling.

3. Another big lie: Soucek’s push-poll claims that Cullie Tarleton was investigated by the Feds for a failed Savings & Loan. The truth: Tarleton was long ago on the board of a Savings & Loan but was never investigated for anything.

Dan Soucek is following the same sleazy path taken by dentist Jerry Butler with this underhanded, fundamentally dishonest means of campaigning. Both Soucek and Butler are following the lead of their presidential candidate, who now doesn’t seem to know the truth from increasingly desperate fictions.

Labels: Cullie Tarleton, Dan Soucek, Jerry Butler, push polling, Steve Goss

A "push poll" is a manipulation of voters via telephone, masquerading as a legitimate opinion poll. It' AIN'T an opinion poll and it AIN'T legitimate. The most famous instance of nasty push-polling was used by Karl Rove in 2000 in South Carolina against John McCain (remember him?) ... "Would it change your mind if you knew that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child? Answer 'yes' or 'no,' and try not to drool."

Local Boone dentist Jerry Butler is running against state Sen. Steve Goss in Dist. 45. Butler is conducting a push poll against Goss. We already have two sources on this and expect more.

The distortion we focus on this morning has to do with the land transfer tax option that the state legislature granted to counties. We stress the word option. Goss voted to give counties the option of passing a land-transfer tax. The Butler push-poll, however, is asking this question (wording is obviously approximate): "Would your opinion of Goss change if you knew he voted for a new tax of up to $1,000 when a homeowner sold their home?"

Goss never voted for a new tax. He voted to give local governments the right to ask their citizens if they thought the buying and selling of expensive second-home real estate in their counties might be a source of revenue for those counties, which are frequently expected to provide various services to those developments, from new schools to water/sewer hookups to sheriff protection.

A push poll is inherently a LIE ... masked as an innocent question. So what does that make Jerry Butler?

Labels: Jerry Butler, land transfer tax, push polling, Steve Goss