Update of an on-going open source journalism investigation over at SoapBlox Colorado dealing with "push-polling" being funded by Grover Norquist.
As Blue the Wild Dog originally blogged, there's been some push polling going on in Colorado around the special election held Nov. 1. Now, it has spread to California and Virginia too!
Sources have confirmed that these push polls are being paid for (at least in part) by the Grover Norquist related "issues" group Americans for Tax Reform.
Calls have been coming in from the number (571) 522-1180. Which, if you do a public
Reverse Phone Number Look Up on you get
the following Results:
Fecr
street address not available
Braddock, VA 22302
(571) 522-1180
AND
Ccabiz
street address not available
Braddock, VA 22302
(571) 522-1180
We've got some new inform from a blogger FirstMate from Virgina about this company too:
Their physical address is: 13800 Coppermine Road, Herndon, VA 21071. Their REAL office number is: 703-234-2200.
They also have a website: http://www.electionresearch.com.
There is a link on the site called "Do Not Disturb" which gives you the option to have your phone number erased from the data bank.
FYI: According to their listing using the reverse phone look up, they are located in Braddock, VA. There is no such town in VA. There is however, a Lake Braddock, which is not a town, but, in fact a lake. The town is actually Burke.
Perhaps due to the reporting originally on SoapBlox Colorado, the Denver Post picked up the story today:
Grover Norquist, the influential leader of the national anti-tax movement in Washington, D.C., is "robo-calling" thousands of Colorado voters this month after saying in August he would not be spending money in the campaign over Referendums C and D.
The Investigation So Far
With the phone number listed above, we've found out a lot.
We learned from an ambitious blogger named A Curious Stranger @ Colorado Luis' blog that this "CcaBiz" is in fact ccAdvertising
Who is ccAdvertising?
ccAdverstings's about section claims:
ccAdvertising is fundamentally a survey and database company, which utilizes a patented (patents pending) Interactive Voice Response - Speech Recognition (IVRSR) medium it created called, ccAdvertising.
If you look at ccAdvertising's Press Release Page, you can download a word doc called Election Research 18-Targetd State Survey Bush Versus Kerry - Oct 25, 2004 Compared To Election Day Results which claims:
On October 25, 2004, Election Research completed the "sixteenth and final survey" in a series of surveys conducted as part of an Election 2004 program. During a 24-hour period from October 24, 2004 through October 25, 2004, Election Research surveyed 249,970-homes in the 18-states targeted by both the George W. Bush and John F. Kerry 2004 Presidential campaigns. This universe translated into 13,887-homes per state.
Other things associated with ccAdvertising:
Pete Sessions (R-Tx) used ccAdvertising, spending $10,000.
In 2000, Colorado Conservative Voters and Club for Growth spent $100,000 doing polls through this group.
The Attorney General of North Dakota is bringing charges against ccAdvertising saying:
Whether the enforcement of NDCC 51-28-02 as to interstate political polling calls is preempted by Section 2 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
This company sponsered a 'meet & greet' with GOP congresswoman Cathy McMorris
ccAdvertsing is owned by a man named Gabe Joseph.
Who was a keynote speaker at a event that featured the following speakers:
# Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
# Ryan Ellis, Alliance for Worker Freedom
# Ron Nehring, Americans for Tax Reform
# Bob Williams, Evergreen Freedom Foundation
# Darcy Olsen, Goldwater Institute
# David Salisbury, Cato Institute
# John Fund, The Wall Street Journal
What Gabe did at this event:
7:15 - 8:30 AM--Election Research Breakfast:
How to use 20 Million Conservative Homes Identified Nationwide in Politics, Fundraising and Lobbying
# Presented by Gabe Joseph, President, ccAdvertising
This is to show their real bona fide GOP "movement conservative credentials".
Is ccAdvertising Violating your privacy?
This all started with a push poll. But what ccAdvertising is doing is hardly a poll.
As reported by kellymonaghan from the Juneau (AK) Empire:
If residents stuck with the call and spoke "yes" or "no" in a voice clear enough for the computer to understand, they learned that three local candidates had paid for the "survey."
What they weren't told is that this was no ordinary public opinion poll, where individual responses are pooled for statistical purposes and no single person's private thoughts recorded in a way that could later identify them.
As the computer gathered the answers, it stored each one individually, making it possible to retrieve them later by phone number, household name or address for other purposes.
These aren't polls! These aren't even push-polls!
They are pretending to be polls to stealthy gather personal information about voters. Because, when you say you're doing a poll, people assume they are anonymous. And if you're giving a poll that is not going to be anonymous, then the person taking the poll must be told their answers are being record in any sort of way before any question is asked.
But Grover isn't doing that. He's doing a a privacy violating demographic telemarketing scam masking itself as political "free speech" funded by movement conservatives with the dirty money of Norquist, Abramoff, DeLay, and all the actors in the current incarnation of the GOP's culture of corruption.
All while in violation of Congress' "Do Not Call" Law. These calls might not violate the letter of the law, but they definitely violate the spirit, especially since respondents aren't told up front that their answers are being record.
What I think they're doing
Voter records have phone numbers. They use ccAdvertising to blanket robo call an entire state. Then, they store how they answer the "push poll" results, and cross-reference them with the voting records easily obtainable at your County office. All of this is to better target sympathetic voters, and map out the beliefs of each individual voter.
****
Example of Push Poll in Colorado.
From DanoKen, a commenter over at Colorado Luis' blog:
just got push polled by former CO state senate president, John Andrews. (Showed up as "FECR" 571-522-1180 on the caller ID.) Lots of loaded questions. I tried to jot down the gist of each question as they were delivered (see below). The poll was sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform (atr.org). Andrews provided the disclosure and URL at the end of the poll.
Do you support the SCOTUS decision that grants businesses the right to take away land for greater good?
Agree with the CA court's "One nation under god ruling"?
Do you support term limits for CO judges? (Andrews mentioned something trying to push buttons vis-a-vis "lifetime" judicial appointments.)
Should CO elect all of its judges?
Ref C & D question. It was a push poll-type: Do you want to spend millions more of tax payer money...blah blah. Basically restates C & D's opponents talking points. Horribly biased question...
Do you consider yourself a Republican? [Uh, yeah, sure.]
Theses calls have been going to Ohio, Colorado, California. and Virginia.
***
Other names ccAdvertising may go by
We've found out these guys have different names too. Here's that list:
FreeEats.com, Inc., dba
The FreeEats Companies
ccAdvertising
ccAdvertising.biz
ccAdvertising.Info
ElectionResearch.com
FECads.com
FECResearch.com
That's all!
That's the investigation so far. You can help! Let's shine some light on the privacy violating conservatives.
This diary is a compilation from content and comments from the following places:
Norquist continues Push Polls
Norquist doing Push Polls
Post picks up Push Polls
Bread crumbs
C & D aware
More on push polls
The original