Telephone poll angers Buxbaum supporters

Election: Was it a 'push poll?' Council candidate Kingsbury says no

MATT BATCHELDOR; The Olympian | • Published September 25, 2009

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OLYMPIA - Supporters of Olympia City Council candidate Stephen Buxbaum have accused his opponent, incumbent Jeff Kingsbury, of authorizing an automated telephone "push poll" that they say is more about casting Buxbaum in a negative light than measuring public opinion.

Buxbaum supporter and Olympia resident Hal Spencer filed a complaint with the state Public Disclosure Commission, saying the poll is unlawful because it wasn’t disclosed that Kingsbury’s campaign paid for the poll.

“It is a push poll, in my opinion,” said Spencer, one of the residents who received the poll call. Kingsbury said the 12-question poll went out to 400 randomly selected registered voters.

The telephone poll, which was conducted Monday evening, asked questions about Kingsbury in a positive light and Buxbaum in a negative light, according to interviews with six people who said they participated, as well as a Buxbaum campaign statement. Kingsbury declined to release the script of the poll.

“I think this kind of campaign tactic is reprehensible,” Buxbaum said in an interview. “I don’t think it has any place in politics in any level.”

Kingsbury said the poll he authorized is a legitimate campaign poll, not a push poll, and that Buxbaum’s supporters are distorting its questions.

“We were testing our issues with a 12-question poll, and there’s nothing untoward in anything in the poll,” he said. “We’re talking about issues that relate to this community, and I’m trying to shape my message for what I consider a difficult campaign.”

Kingsbury finished second behind Buxbaum in the August primary by a margin of 3,773 votes to 2,696. Voters will begin receiving ballots for the Nov. 3 general election in the mail in little more than three weeks.

THE CALLS

The calls were conducted by WinPower Strategies, a Seattle polling firm, said Michael King, principal of the company. Precision Polling, another Seattle firm, served as a vendor that was involved but did not create the questions, CEO Gaurav Oberoi said in a phone message.

According to the Buxbaum campaign and people who received the calls, the questions went this way:

They first were asked about the direction in which Olympia is headed, what they think about whether Capitol Lake should be retained or turned into an estuary, and whether they plan to vote for Kingsbury or Buxbaum.

Then came the questions about Kingsbury, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for Jeff Kingsbury or Stephen Buxbaum if you knew that …” followed by positive comments about Kingsbury, according to the Buxbaum campaign.

Then came the questions about Buxbaum, also, “would you be more or less likely to vote for Stephen Buxbaum if you knew that …” followed by these assertions about Buxbaum:

• He has very little community involvement.

• He refuses to take a position on the lake-estuary issue.

• He has criticized downtown developments that would bring jobs to the community.

“It started fine, but it was pretty quickly evident that it was a political poll,” said Carolyn McKinnon, who received the phone poll. “I felt like I was being manipulated.”

Lisa Hayes, who ran Kingsbury’s last campaign but now supports Buxbaum, said she also received a call and was polled.

“It was very obvious that it was a push poll,” she said.

Buxbaum’s supporters maintain that the poll’s implications about their candidate are untrue. They cite his work securing a site for the Olympia Farmers Market, his board membership for the Olympia Food Co-op and his role as board member for the Dispute Resolution Center, among other things. He said he does have a position on the lake-estuary issue – that it’s in the state’s hands and that the city should push the state to address the advantages and disadvantages of each option. He said he has opposed taller buildings on the isthmus but has overseen affordable-housing and public-works projects.

Kingsbury said his claims about Buxbaum are true.

“There are three out of the 12 questions that say his name, and they give accurate information about where he is currently on positions that affect this city,” he said.

Buxbaum criticized the poll for being anonymous.

“I think particularly about the anonymity and the observations that the content was at the very least misleading and deceptive,” he said.

Kingsbury said the call was anonymous because stating who it was coming from would have affected the results.

It’s not a push poll, he said, because it just went to a random sample of voters. A true push poll, he said, would go out to 20,000 voters.

WHAT IS A ‘PUSH POLL’?

“The first thing on push polls is that there’s not a good agreed-upon definition of what a push poll is,” said Matt Barreto, director of the Washington Poll at the University of Washington.

Barreto, an associate professor of political science, said push polls masquerade as regular polls to demean candidates.

“Generally a push poll, even though it has the word ‘poll,’ is not much of a poll,” he said.

He thinks the Kingsbury poll was a push poll. But also, “it’s research and development,” he said. He said a better poll from a candidate asks for negative impressions of that candidate as well.

Barreto said such polls are common in federal and state elections, and they are starting to trickle more into other areas.

Former state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt, a supporter of Kingsbury, said it wasn’t a push poll.

“This is absolutely a poll, a legitimate poll,” said Berendt, who said he has been part of many polls.

People who “know nothing about polls nor have they seen this are making wild accusations,” he said.

Barreto, the UW professor who calls it a push poll, said the question is whether the call is an advertisement. That’s what the Public Disclosure Commission is reviewing in Spencer’s complaint.

Lori Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Public Disclosure Commission, said the agency is reviewing the complaint, just as it would review any other. She said the group is determining whether to conduct an investigation, just as it would for any other complaint. Violators can be assessed up to $4,200, she said.

“I’m confident that this will be resolved,” Kingsbury said.

Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869

mbatcheldor@theolympian.com