Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Wilson Strategies Arm Push Polling in Iowa updated

From a blog
post on Edwards presidential site (spelling errors in original post):

Guess what folks, I just got pushed polled by the Obama campaign. The caller asked for either me or my husband by name. First tip off. The poller said they were with Central Research. Asked the requiste who are you supporting? Who is your second choice? Then why do you think Hillary Clinton is a weak candidate and gives 3 choices. A) Is a weak general election candidate. B)Is too dependent on lobbyist money. C) Won’t bring change. Then why do do think John Edwards is a weak candidate with 2 choices A) a weak general election candidate because his positions are too liberal B) He should be home with his wife who has cancer. **update** I can’t prove it was the Obama Campaign, but he was never mentioned as to weaknesses. I asked the questioner who comissioned the poll. The caller just said again Central Research. I have been polled enough to know that it was not an actual poll. In polls from reputable sources they never ask for specific voters as was the case here. Also they used my voter id as listed in the Iowa Democratic Party database because my full name does not fit, it is missing the last 3 letters. So it was a candidate driven call. There were no qestions about what issues are you interested in or even how likely are you to caucus. On a Google search Central Research comes up as a company involved in animal research. No company can be found that does polling. Push polls happen all the time. I was so angry after I got the call that I thought everyone here needed to know about it. Obama has been saying some really inflammatory things about Edwards in Iowa. Insinuating things about his character. The next logical step is to do a push poll which cannot be easily linked to him. This is my personal opinion on the push poll.

I’ve just spoken with Ben Labolt of the Obama campaign about the possibility
of the push polling on Edwards and Clinton out of Iowa being from their camp.
He said that the Obama campaign is “not involved in any way.”
After we hung up Ben called back about five minutes later. He wanted to
make clear that as to the second question, item b, on Elizabeth Edwards, “We
think that line of questioning is abhorrent.”

I was the first call they’d received on this issue. It’s good to hear his emphatic
denial, because from what I’m being told by people who know, it’s illegal to
fabricate or use a fake name when doing push polling.

So who is Central Research?

Ever heard of Wilson Research Strategies? The firm’s founder has been
involved in every Republican presidential campaign since 1992. Central Research
is an arm of Wilson Research Strategies, which
has been tied to push polling before:

Sutherlin said he was able to connect Wilson Research Strategies to an outfit called Central Marketing Services that has been accused of doing poison push polls around the country. “I don’t know yet who hired Wilson Research,” Sutherlin said. Ed Feigenbaum, editor of the Indiana Legislative Insight, said he reported earlier about push polling in Carmel and that it was being done by Wilson Research. “The firm was identified at the beginning of the polling,” he said. “I couldn’t discover who was paying for the push poll.” Feigenbaum said it was pretty obvious from the questions that it was a push poll. Chris Wilson, owner of Wilson Research Strategies, denied engaging in push polling. … ..

Central Marketing and Central Research are identified in the same
article. Willson Research Strategies also polled on an
Edwards Iraq ad back in 2007, among others. Oh, but don’t forget
to insert blanket denials from the aforementioned here.

So Wilson Research Strategies is push polling against Clinton and Edwards, but not Obama. Why?

This story isn’t over yet.

UPDATE II & III (now combined): III: Cliff returned my email. His association “never got off the ground.” He has no association whatsoever with the firm. TO ADD, via a second email from Cliff, he has requested his picture be removed from the 411 Communications site, now assoc. with Wilson Research Strategies, asap. II: I was waiting for an email response before posting this update, but haven’t gotten one yet. Another person who was formerly of 411 Communications is Cliff Schecter, but I don’t know if he kept any affiliation once it was acquired by Wilson Research Strategies. He currently works for Brave New Films. I know Cliff and consider him a colleague. He’s been on my radio show. It’s late in Ohio, so I’ll post his response whenever I get it.

UPDATE: I’ve been following a couple of leads, but one in particularly has fallen short as of this update. First, this is not negative messaging. So this is where I come out right now. First you have dispel any belief that Republicans want to run against Hillary Clinton. As I’ve proven in other posts, they do not. Edwards is also a tough street fighter, as we’ve all seen lately. Barack Obama is not. He doesn’t do negative attacks well, as we’ve seen and is better suited to a loftier campaign perch. He’d be the easiest of the frontrunners to attack, because he won’t push back nearly as hard as Clinton or Edwards. Republicans win elections on negative ads and swiftboating, as well as the fear card, especially if some convenient terrorism threat pops up, let’s just say, a few days before the election like it did with Kerry. Obama is particularly vulnerable on both of those counts so, to add, he’s the one Republicans want to run against, thus the push polling on Clinton and Edwards. So that led me to follow the entities and a company acquired by Wilson Strategies, 411 Communications:

Chris Ingram – Chris Ingram, founder of 411 Communications, became a principal in WRS, as a result of its acquisition of his company. Prior to founding 411 Communications, Ingram was the senior vice president of the Luntz Research Companies where he managed the day-to-day functions of the office, directed corporate and political client relations, and oversaw polling and communications for clients including American Express, the Republican National Committee, Rudy Giuliani and the National Rifle Association.

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