Yes, I got push-polled by Wal-Mart!
...or by their flunkies, actually.
I got home from work to find a message on our answering machine from some outfit called "Ask Illinois" requesting that I call back to take a short survey on "an important economic issue currently being discussed on the floor of the Chicago City Council". Smelling a rat, I called them back at 1-866-346-8891 to hear this:
"This is a one-question Ask Illinois survey that should take less than 30 seconds to complete. Let's get started. Members of the Chicago City Council want to stop new retail stores from opening in the city because the union bosses don't want the competition. These new stores would create thousands of new jobs in underdeveloped neighborhoods. Here's our question:
"Do you want to see retail development and thousands of new jobs in Chicago's underdeveloped neighborhoods? If you want to see the jobs, press 1. If you think the council should stop the jobs, press 2. If you're not sure, Press 3. Again, if you want to see the jobs, press 1. If you think the council should stop the jobs, press 2. If you're not sure, press 3."
I was filled with glee! My first push-poll! This was clearly an effort to drum up support against the Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance in the week-plus left before the vote before the full city Council:
On June 21st, Chicago ACORN's Big Box Ordinance, which includes a living wage for stores that are at least 90,000 square feet, passed out of the City Council's Committee on Finance by a vote of 15-6. On June 28, the ordinance passed its last hurdle in the finance committee by a voice vote, and will go to a full city council vote on July 26th. The ordinance mandates a $10 minimum hourly wage and $3 an hour in fringe benefits, with annual indexing for inflation.
For obvious reasons, Wal-Mart and Target are not happy campers. So I pulled out the mp3 recorder, re-dialled, and set out to do a little research.
"Ask Illinois" is a Springfield, Illinois-based polling service used at least once by the Illinois Coalition for JOBS, Growth & Properity. At least that's what the Coalition's website says here.
And that's the only reference to "Ask Illinois" in a polling context I can find on Google. So... what is this coalition? Do they have a particular axe to grind on this issue? from their own website:
"(M)ajor employer groups representing thousands of employers and more than a million Illinois workers have united to launch the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth & Prosperity. Founding members include: Illinois Business Roundtable (IBRT), Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Manufacturers' Association (IMA), Illinois Civil Justice League, and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce."
A quick check on the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce site dug up "Chamber Opposes Big Box Ordinance" by Jerry Roper
Then I found this article in Crain's Chicago Business
"Biz group's poll combats big-box ordinance
(Crain's) -- Chicago's business establishment is fighting back against a wage ordinance for big box stores with a pointedly worded telephone poll launched Wednesday.
Pollsters are dialing up about 200,000 Chicago households and asking them whether they want or oppose the large new stores, said Jerry Roper, president and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, a member of the business coalition that is funding and conducting the poll."
Paydirt.
Mr. Roper said the language [of the poll] is not slanted.
"The way this is worded is to try to educate people more than anything," he said.
The group running the poll is called the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth & Prosperity and includes the Illinois Manufacturers Assn., the Illinois Business Roundtable and the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Roper said that people who answer the poll affirmatively will be urged to call their alderman.
"We want them to hear from hundreds and thousands of people," he said.
Okay Mr. Roper, perhaps you'd like to hear from a few thousand people?
C'mon everyone, call 1-866-346-8891 and press 2. The lines are open...