Push Polling Controversy

Tony Silva

As with everything I blog, the notes below are my opinion only and not associated with any campaign or organization.

With all the controversy over push polling in South Carolina, I decided to do some research to see who is really behind it. The person who heads Common Sense Issues, Inc., the organization doing the polling bragged about sending over 1,000,000 calls into South Carolina on NPR claiming that he was doing it on behalf of presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.

Since these guys normally operate in the shadows, I thought it was kind of screwy that Huckabee would allow "his" surrogates to go on the national media and brag about doing something unethical.... So I did what seemed the Common Sense thing to do about this Issue: I looked into the organization's FEC reports and the donations of the guy who runs their operation.

What I Discovered:

• Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney and the conservative media have been attributing push polling to Huckabee’s campaign
• FEC Records show Common Sense Issues, Inc. supports Huckabee and opposes Romney and have expended funds for Huckabee
• FEC Records also show the head of the push polling operation has supported Fred Thompson financially but not Huckabee
• The head of the push polling operation is bragging about it in the media and stating it is on Huckabee’s behalf in spite of the campaign’s repeated requests that they stop

Where I found It:

• Patrick Davis brags about 1,000,000 push polling calls into S.C. for Huckabee: Click Here
• Common Sense Issues, Inc. FEC Expenditure Report: Click Here
• Patrick Davis Consulting, LLC Google Search: Click Here
• Patrick Davis’ FEC Donations: Click Here

What It Means:

Push polling tends to hurt the guy it's attributed to more than the guy to whom it's targeted. In this case, the people involved in this dispicable operation are going out of their way to attribute it to their "support" of Mike Huckabee.

The only one to benefit from the push polling that took place in South Carolina is Fred Thompson. I don't hold him responsible -- his donors can do whatever they want in the era of McCain-Findgold. However, I do think Fred Thompson should follow Mike Huckabee's lead and disavow his supporter's practice of push polling in South Carolina and for the rest of the campaign -- and stop attributing this activity to an opponent's campaign.

Common Sense Issues, Inc. has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars in their effort to "support" Mike Huckabee. Maybe conservative Republicans should donate as much as they are able to the Huckabee campaign to counter -- and expose -- this nasty group