Fellow blogger and friend Matt Margolis, aka The Buffalo Bean, has gotten his hands on a script for a Jon Powers call center.
The script asks voters who they plan on voting for in the 26th congressional district between Powers, Alice Kryzan and Jack Davis … then advises the pollee of what the caller thinks are errors apparent in the other candidates (if that candidate’s name is stated). Actually, what the Bean has posted to his website only shows rebuttals for if the answer is Jack Davis.
As and example:
Poller – Who do you plan on supporting
Pollee – Jack Davis
Poller – I’m supporting Jon Powers because he has a proven record of integrity, blah blah blah (paraphrased).
The Bean states on his blog that this is a push poll. But he’s either unfamiliar with what a push poll really is … or he’s pushing something of his own.
Of course, in a real push poll, the caller never identifies themselves as a supporter of one candidate or another … and they never state what their candidate (or any other candidate) has done. Instead, they ask the pollee a question to lead them to believe (whether true or not) that the other candidates are bad.
As an example:
Poller: Who are you supporting
Pollee: Jack Davis
Poller: Would you still support Jack Davis if you knew that he had fathered several children out of wedlock with penguins?
Of course, it doesn’t say that Jack knocked up penguins … but it sure leads the person on the other side of the line to believe so.
Considering The Bean is an unabashed fan of George W. Bush, who with the help of Karl Rove mastered push polling in 2000 (against current GOP nominee John McCain), I’d think he’d be more familiar.
Update: The Bean changed his post reference of “push poll” and now just refers to it as a “call script.”
Thanks, Matt.