Monday, November 14, 2011

The Pornography of Push Polling

I just received a call from Luce Research.


It was balanced at first, and then, when the pollster asked if I wanted to discontinue the poll, I iterated that I would continue.


I'm glad I did. The following questions were invective raised against congressional candidate Rob Cornilles.


Susan Bonamici is engaging in unscrupulous campaign tactics. The charges raised by this phone call were wrong, deliberately wrong, and intentionally misleading. It is an act of poisoning the well. 



The polling firm, Luce Associates, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is making calls in the first Congressional District, in what are purported to be part of a voter preference poll.

What starts out as a seemingly fair series of questions which is divided into three parts, each section asks questions about the acceptability, or un-acceptability, of positions held by the two congressional candidates, Susan Bonamici and Rob Cornilles. It isn’t until the third part of the survey occurs, that the real intent of the survey is revealed, the denigration of one of the candidates in that race, Rob Cornilles.

What had been the suggestion of impartiality of polling questions is replaced with what is best known as “push-polling” questions, that tend to represent, or, in the case of Rob Cornilles’ candidacy, mis-represent, the views of the candidate, Mr. Cornilles, to show him in the worst possible light.

The final section of the poll is spent representing the Republican candidate, Rob Cornilles, as being anti-feminist, anti-employment, and pro-crony capitalist. And, as a Tea Party radical.

None of which positions, from what we can ascertain, are true. 

At this moment, the Cornilles campaign has no comment. The polling firm, Luce Research and, the Bonamici campaign has not returned our calls.

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