I got a call from an unknown number. I reluctantly answered, not able to conceive of why the call was coming. A young woman stated that she would like to ask me a couple of public opinion questions relating to upcoming elections. I agreed to proceed.
I asked the name of the firm. She insisted it was private and had no interest in the results. I said I wanted to know the name of the firm. She said it. I didn’t understand and asked her to repeat a few times, asking her to speak slowly. English was not her first language. I never really did comprehend the name, but I figured it out later. It is Dynata. It sounded like “Diomeda” which I google searched later to no avail. The Diomede Islands are between western Alaska and Russia in the Bering Sea. I was reaching for an Alaska themed name, guessing that an Alaskan polling firm would have an Alaskan name. It’s not an Alaskan firm.
After her CYA statements the first real question was my party affiliation. I was contemplating whether I wanted to give accurate info or not. Depends on who is gathering. I hadn’t figured it out yet. So I fibbed ever so slightly and said I was indy but lean dem. Which would have been technically true in the past, though I have always voted dem. Not always happy about it but I did it. Now I am registered dem and I confront the folks saying “they are all the same” with reality.
Next was presidential preference. A couple of questions. What did I think of and who would I vote for. I was honest. Then a favorability question about Al Gross (favorable). Then a couple about Sullivan. I was asked about favorability (very unfavorable), likelihood of voting for him (very unlikely). Could something change my likelihood of voting for him (very unlikely).
Then the push poll started. I had been pondering whether to give up my data. Alaska is hard to poll. Maybe it was Dr. Al or the Lincoln Project or some other ally doing this? I didn’t think so, but she made it clear when she started defining Dr Al as someone who “claims to be independent but has made statements about caucusing with liberal democrats” or something to that effect.
I interjected and again asked her to state the name of the firm since I hadn’t understood earlier. I still didn’t even after she said the name again and spoke more slowly. Spell it I thought, but never said. Then I told her I would not respond to that question. I told her she was doing a “push poll” and defined it for her. I acknowledged that she was just doing her job, but that her firm was working for the Sullivan campaign and that her questions weren’t really questions but intended to increase support for Sullivan and decrease support for Dr. Al. She said “independent blah blah”. I said your firm might be independent but it is working for the Sullivan campaign and I am not going to engage with the “questions” attempting to define Al Gross as they were not really questions.
After a couple of pleas she recognized that she wasn’t going to be able to complete the survey (and maybe she gets paid by the piece? I bet she is really nice, just doing her job), she said thank you very much and ended the call.
If there is a takeaway point from this my guess is that Sullivan and allies are nervous or even anxious. And that is a good thing. It took Ted Stevens being indicted (later conviction overturned) to get an Alaskan dem in the senate most recently.
Oh, and the way I finally figured out what Dynata is is I called the number I was called from, and they spelled it out for me. Literally. Had to poke around a little but I found a description of a similar push poll in another state confirming my suspicions. Based in Texas it seems, though it was a 907 (AK) number.