Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who is a candidate for Congress District 1, is the target of an ongoing “push poll” campaign, his campaign team said in an email today.
“You or family members may have received a phone call in recent days, from seemingly objective survey companies, asking your opinions about Mufi and the August 11 primary election. Be careful. These polls are being conducted either through pre-recorded, randomly-dialed phone calls, or from supposedly legitimate firms (one pollster identified himself as calling on behalf of MR Survey of Las Vegas),” the email said.
“Whatever their origins, they have one objective in mind: pose a negative question about a candidate, in this case Mufi, and ask you to agree or disagree. Because the questions tend to be skewed toward the negative and are full of half-truths, this seemingly innocent poll is, in fact, “pushing” respondents toward a negative opinion of the candidate in question. But the results – especially when unfavorable to Mufi – will then be released as unbiased, legitimate poll results,” the email continued.
Local polling companies have condemned push polls as unethical and Hannemann’s team points out the National Council on Public Polls, American Association for Public Opinion Research, and American Association of Political Consultants, are also opposed to push polls.
Residents who received calls about Hannemann were asked basic questions about their voting status, and then the poller asked “Is Mufi too much of an ambitious politician?” “Does Mufi promise anything to get elected?” “Would it affect your decision if Mufi took too much credit for saving the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, which was due to Senator Inouye and not Mufi?”
Hannemann’s campaign said: “Don’t be fooled by this deceptive campaign tactic. They’re labeled “push polls” because their sole intention is to ‘push’ you in the pollster’s direction using erroneous information and outright falsehoods.”
Hannemann is at least the third politician this season to be targeted by negative push polls.
Back in April, both former Gov. Benjamin Cayetano, a candidate for Honolulu mayor, and Honolulu City Council Member Tom Berg reported push polls targeting their campaigns.
The pollster going after Cayetano claimed when he was governor from 1994 to 2002, he laid off huge numbers of state workers, took away health benefits from teachers and raised taxes on the middle class. The pollsters will not identify themselves or who their client is.
Cayetano, a Democrat challenging incumbent Mayor Peter Carlisle and former City Managing Director Kirk Caldwell in the non-partisan race, has distinguished himself from opposing the city’s $5.3 billion elevated steel on steel rail project. Cayetano maintains the cost is too high, and the project is too ugly, and he plans to stop it. Cayetano wants to focus on rehabilitating the city’s dilapidated infrastructure including the water system, the sewer system and the roads, and that will cost the city about $12 billion to $15 billion.
Both Carlisle and Caldwell are supportive of the city rail and are backed by pro-rail unions.
Cayetano said in April and in subsequent interviews he that it is Pacific Resource Partnership, an organization supporting the rail project that claims to have more than 200 contractor members, funding the polls. Pacific Resource Partnership has been one of the key backers and funders of the pro-rail campaign.
John White, the executive director for the Pacific Resource Partnership, refused to respond to Hawaii Reporter’s inquiry.
Berg, who also opposes the rail, obtained a copy of the push poll targeting him, and posted it to YouTube. Hear the call here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj7sihmjxeQ
Berg, who represents District 1, and is being challenged this election by at least two well known, pro rail candidates – State Rep. Kymberly Pine, a Republican, and former State Rep. Alex Santiago, a Democrat – said: “The pollster exclaims the smack came from the candidates about each other. I refute this and all other claims made about me and this poll. This sickens me.”
The pollster in Berg’s case would not disclose where the “facts” came from or who was paying for the poll. But Berg traced the number, which is 231-224-2032, to a man named Jerry Shears, with the Mountain West Research Center in Pocatello, Idaho. The company also is operating as Hawaii Opinion Research, Berg said. Neither company is registered to do business in Hawaii.
This is the same phone number – 231-224-2032 – a Cayetano supporter said the push poll smearing Cayetano is coming from. Those calling the number get a message that “the call cannot be completed as dialed.” But Hawaii Reporter called the Mountain West Research Company in Idaho, which said on its web site it has been operating since 1995, and found Shears is not longer with the company.
America’s Watch Tower reports the “Mountain West Research–a group conducting polling for the Paul Hodes campaign–was fined $20,ooo for conducting this push poll ending once and for all the false notion that Paul Hodes was simply conducting “market research” and proving that his campaign was actually engaged in an illegal push poll against Kelly Ayotte.”
Berg threatened to file a lawsuit against the company if the calls continue. Cayetano has threatened legal action against Pacific Resource Partnership.
Neal Milner, a political analyst for several media in Hawaii and the Head Ombuds Officer at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, said push polls are harmful because they are misleading and make people more cynical about polling and consequently less likely to respond to polls.
He said sometimes the difference between a push poll and more legitimate poll is blurred: “For example, a candidate may use a poll to test how people react to negative statements about him/herself or the opponent–like testing the effect of an opponent’s message,” Milner said.
“The juicy part of the Berg poll starts like it may be going off in that direction,” Milner said. “Berg is probably just as interested in knowing the impact of the story of his APEC conduct as his opponents are. Nevertheless, legitimate pollsters and public opinion hate push polls. They seem them as misleading and unethical.”
As Richard Borreca explained in his Star Advertiser column published on July 24, “If it is a real push poll, then the sponsor will not waste time asking the usual demographic questions or any other questions. Instead, the pollster will ask that if you knew something vile about Candidate X, would that make you change your vote? The object is to get the smear out to as many people as possible.”
I actually received the call that Mufi calls a “push poll” & it did ask me demographic questions, so based on that I know it wasn’t a push poll.
If it was a push poll, it would have said “Mufi is a freaking asshole” & I would have totally agreed with that :-), but the poll just asked me some tame questions basically about what I thought of Mufi & his opponent Tulsi to which I replied all negative about Mufi & all positive about Tulsi 🙂
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