Leroy Towns says "push polls" are oftentimes not.
On his Talk Politics blog, the UNC-Chapel Hill journalism professor writes that polls designed to spread misinformation about an opponent are "rather sleazy tactics."
But he says that there are legitimate reasons for candidates to ask negative questions, including testing arguments for use against opponents.
Push polls have such a bad media reputation that when voters hear the "push" question in a legitimate poll, they call the newspaper and complain candidate A is push polling. Reporters fall for it almost every time.
Towns says political reporters (including Dome) have an obligation to "sort out" sleazy poll questions from legitimate ones and provide evidence calls were made.
Note to Towns: That's why we asked readers to record the calls.
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Re: Towns: When is a poll pushing?
Not a good poll, but not a sleazy "push poll." Read the JOMC blog linked above (or google "push poll"). These are all legitimate questions for the campaign to determine whether their free book campaign was successful and what the views are of their supporters (and non-supporters) with regard to controversial questions.