NH Register: DeStefano blasts 'push polling' tactic

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NH Register: DeStefano blasts 'push polling' tactic

The New Haven Register July 27, 2006

By Gregory B. Hladky

Hartford- Democratic gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano Jr., the alleged target of a negative campaign tactic called "push polling," called the practice "despicable" Wednesday, but his opponent denied any involvement.

"We have never and will never engage in push polling," said Chris Cooney, campaign manager for the other candidate in the Aug. 8 Democratic primary race, Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy.

The controversy erupted after former U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson reported that he'd received an anti-DeStefano "push polling" call at his Branford home this week.

Push polling refers to the practice of having a pseudo-polling operation call up likely voters and begin by asking general questions, as any regular poll. But then the caller begins to ask questions or preface questions with statements that are negative to a particular candidate in order to influence the voter's opinion.

Gejdenson said the alleged pollster who telephoned him began by asking general questions about his political attitudes and preferences in the primary. Gejdenson said that, after he indicated he was planning to vote for DeStefano in the primary, the caller began making negative comments about DeStefano or his record in New Haven.

"He (the alleged pollster) just started trashing (DeStefano)," said Gejdenson. He said the caller suggested that crime was rampant in New Haven and that DeStefano had tried to build a mall in "an environmentally sensitive place" near Long Island Sound.

Gejdenson said the caller only identified his organization as "a polling operation."

"There's no doubt it was an anonymous attempt to try and persuade voters to change their positions," DeStefano said during a campaign stop in Hartford.

DeStefano said that it may be correct that "the corporate entity" of the Malloy campaign had no connection to the alleged polling. "But I know who the beneficiary of that effort was," said DeStefano.

"It's a despicable thing. ... There's no place for that in American politics," DeStefano said.

Cooney flatly denied any connection between Malloy's campaign and any alleged push polling. He said some of Malloy's supporters received calls from alleged pollsters earlier this month who were "asking questions that put Dan Malloy in a bad light."

"We didn't make a big deal about it," said Cooney.

Malloy's campaign also claimed this week that DeStefano's campaign was engaging in negative campaigning by turning to "distortions and misrepresentations" in campaign mailings delivered to voters over the weekend.

Cooney said Malloy's campaign is constantly doing polling and research, just like every other campaign preparing for the Aug. 8 primary and the November election.

The push-polling controversy in the Democratic gubernatorial race comes at the same time as similar allegations are surfacing in other races around the state.

Douglas Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said the practice is "frowned upon as an unethical campaign practice" because push polling is used to "spread lies under the guise of conducting legitimate polls."

Allegations of push polling by candidates or their campaign allies have repeatedly cropped up in previous Connecticut elections.

"They do it because they think it works," Schwartz said of the persistence of such a practice. But Schwartz said he's never seen any scientific evidence that negative push-polling is able to significantly influence voters' attitudes or voting preferences.

Schwartz added that the continued practice of push polling could undermine legitimate polling efforts by creating public suspicions of pollsters and their willingness to cooperate in legitimate polls.