Kerry: Push Polls & Dirty Tricks?
by RA
Fri Jan 23, 2004 at 02:07:36 PM PDT
Stealth Negativity? Recording Reveals Kerry Operative Dissing Dean in Campaign Call
By Jake Tapper
ABCNEWS.com
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/ThisWeek/Kerry_Dean_calls_040117.html
Excerpts:
But two nights ago, Cornell College psychology professor Suzette Astley, a Dean volunteer in Lisbon, Iowa, received a phone call from a Kerry's Cedar Rapids headquarters -- in which, she says, a Kerry volunteer had some less than kind things to say about Dean regarding his foreign policy experience, being from a largely
white state, and so-called "environmental racism."
Since a documentary filmmaker was staying with Astley, the exchange, which has been confirmed by the Kerry campaign, was caught on videotape.
"Does your candidate know that you're saying these kinds of things, unsubstantiated claims on the phone representing Sen. Kerry?" Astley asked 19-year-old volunteer, Jacob Thomas, on the
tape, a copy of which was obtained by ABCNEWS.
Soon, she asked to speak with Kerry's regional field supervisor, with whom she launched a complaint.
"I am just really offended by the call I got tonight," she said. "The person who was talking to me was taking things out of context, repeating unsubstantiated reports to me, and I find that really offensive."
"The person who made the call is a young volunteer whose remarks were not authorized or condoned by this campaign," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.
But the Dean campaign said it was under the impression that the call did not represent just one over-zealous volunteer speaking extemporaneously. Rather, the campaign said in the last day it had heard of Kerry campaign calls to at least five other Iowans reading from what it said sounded like a very similar script.
Dean campaign spokesman Jay Carson slammed Kerry for claiming to run a positive campaign while letting others do his dirty work.
ABCNEWS has spoken to another Iowa Dean supporter, Susan Alexander, who said she received a phone call on the same night as Astley, which sounded like it came from the same script.
Push Poll?
A third Iowan, Dick Alexander, told ABCNEWS he received a phone call about two weeks ago from an organization claiming to be a polling firm unaffiliated with any candidate, in which pro-Kerry and anti-Dean information was conveyed.
The Alexander call, should it have happened, would meet the definition of a "push poll" -- a call purportedly from an objective polling firm that actually seeks to "push" voters away
from candidates by spreading negative information about them.
During the 2000 GOP primaries, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., charged then-Gov. George W. Bush with making "push call" phone calls against him. His campaign soon retaliated with recorded anti-Bush calls to Michigan voters that did not disclose their affiliation.
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