The State Employees Association of North Carolina contracted with the polling firm Hart Research Associates to survey SEANC members last month about topics that included the candidates for governor.
Hart's firm already knew a good bit about one of the candidates, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, since Hart works for her campaign, Mark Johnson of the Charlotte Observer reports.
SEANC's endorsement is prized among candidates, but Executive Director Dana Cope said nobody got an unfair advantage from the poll. He said Hart has internal firewalls to prevent the sharing of information.
Cope said SEANC leaders were unaware of Hart's connection to Perdue until a representative of the polling firm told them. The association has worked with Hart for several years, he said. Cope also said he didn't see the need to disclose the connection to members during the poll.
"I don't think it's relevant," Cope said in a telephone interview today. "None of the information is shared with any of the candidates."
He also said that mentioning the Perdue connection to respondents might skew their answers.
SEANC's current procedures would make it difficult to endorse in the primary election, but Cope said some members are pushing to do that.
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