Sunday, May 10, 2015

WHO IS BEHIND THE POLL?

Friday evening I received an e-mail from a resident who questioned a phone call they had received and the polling questions asked. The person was sharp enough to write down the questions word for word and then traced the callers number back to the polling company. Saturday I received more phones calls and spoke to more people who had received the call.

I think by the nature of the questions, it isn't too hard to figure out who commissioned the poll, but you never know, unless his campaign is willing to admit it, or when the next campaign financial filing is due and we see which campaign actually pays the bill.

Here are some of the poll questions:


If you knew John Gale had four kids and a wife and lived here for life would that be a positive or negative thing?

If you knew John’s family was from an immigrant background and his uncle was Johnny Duke, is that a  positive. or negative thing?

According to the e-mail as well as the other callers, there were two or three more of these positive statements, before they ask who  the e-mail author would be supporting for mayor.

There was a question about whether the e-mail author would rather support an attorney that worked for the public interest in Hartford or an attorney that worked for the federal government

They asked my opinion of  Governor Malloy.

THEN, the BOMBSHELL, according to the e-mail 

The pollster asked  “Would this statement make you feel more negative about a candidate?  If a candidate was an attorney who had his law license suspended due to failure to pay client fees " would that affect your decision

I did a reverse phone number look up and it appears they are using EMC Research. http://www.emcresearch.com/index.html

I am not sure what the motivation for the poll was, unless Gale's campaign is actually trying to gauge if there is support in the community for his campaign. I also wonder about that first question, was it to make people question a gay candidate who is married to a man and has no children without actually coming out and saying it? And who has even heard the name Johhny Duke or remembers who he was? And I am not sure which candidate had his law license suspended, I am pretty sure it is not Judge Killian or Luke Bronin, so the only other lawyer running is Pedro Segarra.

2 comments:

  1. After being the victim of such tactics, I guess John decided it would work for him this time. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/13/nyregion/candidate-is-assailed-for-using-poll-to-get-support.html

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