Last week, the state’s attorney general filed a civil suit against Congressman Charlie Bass’ campaign for failing to identify itself as the sponsor of a “push poll” during the 2010 campaign.
“The poll in question was a legitimate message testing survey, not a push poll,” claimed Bass spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne. Former New Hampshire GOP chair Fergus Cullen echoed his defense, “He appears to have conducted a standard poll of 400 New Hampshire voters,” wrote Cullen, “no different in nature from the kinds of polls all major candidates, Democrat or Republican, conduct in the course of campaigns.”
Their response is a red herring.
The commonly accepted definition of a push poll is that of a telemarketing call disguised as a public opinion survey. The Bass campaign, rightfully so, denies they engaged in this type of activity.
The state, however, defines a push poll as any call that meets just three criteria: it is in support of, or in opposition to, a candidate for public office; it asks questions that convey information about the character or political record of an opposing candidate; and it is likely to be construed as a survey for an organization acting independent of the candidate.
As Cullen notes, legitimate message polls — presumably including the Bass call in question — routinely meet that criteria. But here’s the thing, push polls are not illegal in New Hampshire. The law only requires that the caller identify the candidate for whom the call is being made. That’s where the Bass campaign went awry.
The original draft of the call script, according to the lawsuit, included the disclosure, “The Tarrance Group wishes to thank you for participating in this survey - which was commissioned and paid for by the Bass Victory Committee … 603-226-6000. Good night.”
But in an email dated Sept. 16, 2010, authorities say Bass’s campaign manager asked: “Could we change the disclaimer at the end to NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) since they are paying for half of it? I’d rather have any issues about ‘push polling’ be blamed on them (sorry Brock), rather than us - especially with the date rape drug question in there.”
As a result of the request by Bass’s campaign, Delaney said the call went out to voters with this disclosure: “The Tarrance Group wishes to thank you for participating in this survey - which was commissioned and paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee … 202-479-7050. Good night.”
Oh, and while the Bass campaign is explaining why their actions, perhaps they’ll also explain how they initially “overlooked” 500 pages of damaging email records subpoenaed by the Attorney General’s office.
On Feb. 1, “after further investigation,” the attorney general’s office issued the campaign a second subpoena “in order to verify the accuracy of prior representations that no correspondence between the campaign and the Tarrance Group could be located.” Five days later, authorities said the Bass campaign turned over 500 pages of email records, including communications between campaign officials and employees at the polling firm.
