Allegations of Dean campaign 'push polling' against Clark surface in NH

[janekat]

Article re: Dean Campaign doing "push polling" against Clark in NHhttp://www.politicsnh.com/archives/pindell/2003/september/10_8pp.shtml

-snip-

...According to the Clark campaign at least three people, all located in vicinity of the Seacoast area, received telephone calls Sunday and Monday that appeared to be 'push polling', a method of asking how a potential voter might react about a candidate, in this case Clark, had they known some negative, possibly untrue fact, about the candidate.

Sue Mayer, a 53-year-old former Ph.D. student from Lee, said that around 5pm Monday she received a call from a female identifying herself as Shannon working for NH Opinion Research, a group that appears to be bogus.

Mayer said she had been slightly interested in Clark at the time of the call. At first she confirmed she was a Democrat that votes regularly in in elections. Then she was asked her preferences of candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In the next series of questions she said she was asked whether she thought candidate "A", which had the background similar to Gov. Howard Dean's, was best prepared for the presidency or candidate "B", who had a military and non-political background like Clark.

When she said she preferred candidate "B" she was then asked a series, she says, that asked her if she would still support General Clark (saying Clark by name and no longer using terms like candidate "B") more if she had known he had voted for Republicans or had his integrity questions by former General Hugh Shelton, Clark former commanding officer.

"The questions appeared to go from a regular poll that I usually take to getting slimy in tone," Mayer said in an interview. "At one point I said 'what are you doing', but she didn't say anything.

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Dean spokesperson Dorie Clark said her campaign hadn't heard of any push polls recently using the likeness of Governor Dean.

"Our campaign doesn't conduct push polling," she said. "It is a harmful practice."

[DrBB]

1. That's a push poll all right

But the question whether it's Dean's work is quite another matter. There's someone in the WH who is more than capable of such slimeball politics. Hint: His first name starts with "K" and his last name starts with "arl Rove."

[GabysPoppy]

2. Dupe

Continue discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=587855&mesg_id=587855