Friday, March 30, 2007
The phone number on the Caller ID is 1 (000) 000-0000.
The caller asks if you will take a quick survey about the Lawrence City Commission election that takes place Tuesday and how you feel about hot-button Lawrence issues: property taxes, jobs and infrastructure. The survey names the six commission candidates.
Some of those candidates are upset about these surveys. They say the surveyors are using a technique called push polling, which is similar to suggestive selling in that the surveyors might recommend certain candidates during the survey, rather than asking objective questions.
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Mike Dever said he did not subscribe to the service that reported back to him the results of the surveys and he did not consider the calls to be probing.
“I think it’s an attempt by somebody to influence the election,” said David Schauner, city commission candidate.
Candidates Mike Dever and Rob Chestnut both employ the same phone service company, Pinnacle Telemarketing Incorporated in Plainview, Neb., to conduct the surveys. Pinnacle would not return phone calls.
According to campaign expenditure sheets, Chestnut spent $2,714.25 and Dever spent $951.75 on the outbound calling service. The service is not listed in the expenditure sheets of the other four candidates, Schauner, James Bush, Carey Maynard-Moody and Dennis “Boog” Highberger. All of those candidates said they did not use the service.
Chestnut said the survey company had been calling about 500 Lawrence residents a day for the last couple of weeks.
“They try to establish the folks they think are likely voters and have opinions about the community,” he said. “I’m not familiar with how it happens.”
He said the company had sent him two or three Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with the statistical results of the surveys within the last week, but he said the results had not affected his campaign.
“For me, it’s really confirmed what we thought the issues were out there,” Chestnut said. “It has provided a pretty clear message.”
Dever said the service he purchased did not survey callers, but it did ask callers if they were going to vote for Dever. If not, it asks the callers their reasons.
He said he did not subscribe to the service that reported back to him the results of the surveys and he did not consider the calls to be probing.
“We’re really interested in driving up voter turnout,” Dever said.
Burdett Loomis, KU political science professor, said motivating voter turnout this late in the election process was “the most bang for your buck.” But he also said survey results were most effective at the beginning of campaigns.
“I don’t quite understand what they’re polling for a few days out,” he said.
Bush said he had a hard time believing these calls were being made to educate voters.
“That could have an adverse effect on my campaign if they’re suggesting something misleading,” he said.
Maynard-Moody said her campaign did not have enough money for the survey service and that she chose to spread her campaign message through other media outlets.
She said she had even received telephone messages from the survey company, but she had not returned them. She also said push polls have their place, but she hoped Lawrence voters would ignore the calls when they get them.
“Voters in the urban core of Lawrence are extremely discerning,” she said. “We’ve been through this before.”
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Kelly Lanigan
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