newsobserver.com projects - Is Perdue push-polling? (Campaign: No) - Comments

Re: Is Perdue push-polling? (Campaign: No)

twoshadesofblue — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:41:37 -0500

I agree with Towns that this is not responsible reporting.

The article should give the reader the information in-text they need to decide for themselves the answer to the question at the top "Is Perdue Push Polling?"

"Blogger says yes, campaign says no" doesn't cut it.

Such an article should include an in-text definition of push polling, and either some sort of assessment about whether or not the poll meets that definition (it's not bias or rocket science) or some assessment by experts. All this provides is "he said, she said."

The article leaves readers with the definite impression that this was in fact a push poll run by Perdue that a goodhearted citizen journalist discovered, and that the campaign is just denying it. A finger-wag for the Dome on this one.

Re: Is Perdue push-polling? (Campaign: No)

liam — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:57:58 -0500

That's not push-polling. No, seriously. It's not. I don't know who they're polling for, but this is a legitimate poll.

TDM is the call center wing of The Tyson Organization, a political polling and voter contact firm that has done work here on behalf of the NC Association of Realtors, Rep. Etherige and others.

http://www.tyson.org/

and

http://tinyurl.com/39skte

Is Perdue push-polling? (Campaign: No)

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:29:12 -0500

A blogger alleges that Beverly Perdue is push-polling.

In a post on the liberal Daily Kos group blog, a Raleigh attorney who goes by the handle Old 33 writes that he received a call from a pollster at "TDM Research" about the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

"After a whole set of neutral questions, he started in on the push polling portion of the call...I started writing down his questions once I realized where this was going," he writes.

He writes that he was asked whether he would be more or less likely to support rival Richard Moore if he knew he has taken campaign contributions from Wall Street, made "risky investments" and "refused" to supply mandated reports, among other things.

He writes that a similar series of items about Perdue was uniformly positive, including sponsoring education initiatives, creating a prescription-drug benefit for seniors and strengthening a sex-offender registry.

Update: "We don't know anything about this allegation," said spokesman David Kochman. "We are not currently in the field and have not been for quite some time."

He said that Perdue would not do any push polling.

Previously: A guide to recording push polls.