Illegal calls seek to persuade people how to vote Nov. 7
It starts with a phone call from an out-of-state pollster who wants to take a simple survey that won't take but a few minutes.
The caller asks standard poll questions to the resident about party affiliation and other personal information, such as religious affiliation.
When the survey turns to the topic of which local candidate the voter will choose in the next election, the interview changes. The caller tries to convince the voter about the right or wrong choices to make in the general election this November.
It's called push polling and its illegal in West Virginia, said Ben Beakes, chief of staff for Secretary of State Betty Ireland. Unlike a traditional political advertisement, which credits the source.
Connie Ammons, 57, of Core, is one of two local residents who spoke to The Dominion Post about receiving such calls.
Ammons said she received a call from a pollster who tried to "inform" her about Cindy Frich, Republican incumbent in the 44th district of the House of Delegates running for re-election. Ammons, a Democrat, said the pollster, a woman, identified herself as being with Central Research.
Ammons provided the phone number left on her caller ID by Central Research to The Dominion Post. There was a New York area code, and a phone call to information revealed an active phone number but no address or business for the caller.
A reporter from The Dominion Post made several attempts to call the number, but no one answered.
Ammons said she took the call only because she figured these might be the same people who had tried calling her house earlier in the week.
The poll was pretty standard until it got to the part about the candidates running for one of the four seats representing the 44th district. Ammons said the pollster read her the name of each candidate and asked if she was likely or not to vote for each.
Ammons responded by saying she was "undecided" about each candidate until the pollster asked her about Frich.
"When I said I would vote for Cindy Frich, the person started saying derogatory remarks which I can't repeat, and things I knew were not true," she said.
Ammons said the caller tried to discourage her from voting for Frich by saying she was a pro-life candidate. Ammons said the pollster told her, "Do you realize Cindy Frich does not believe in abortion for any reason."
Ammons told the caller, "Yes, I am pro-life."
She said the caller changed tactics and tried to explain why Barbara Evans Fleischauer, a former delegate seeking to return to a 44th district seat, did not share Frich's view of abortion because Fleischauer voted against a ban on partial birth abortion that did not exempt the mother for health reasons.
Frich confirmed Wednesday that she believes "life begins at conception and that abortion is wrong." Fleischauer said Tuesday she voted against a ban on partial birth abortion eight years ago because it did not have an exception for the health of the mother.
Ammons said the pollster didn't say anything positive or negative about the other candidates.
"I interrupted her (the caller) and said, this doesn't sound like a poll to me, it sounds like an anti-Cindy Frich campaign," Ammons said.
Nancy Gidley, 62, of Morgantown, said she also received a call from a pollster from Central Research earlier this week.
The same phone number that appeared on Ammons' caller ID also appeared on Gidley's caller ID.
Gidley said the caller asked her, "would this affect your vote if you knew Barbara Fleischauer voted against a ban on partial birth abortion?"
Gidley, a Democrat, said the caller then tried to persuade her that Frich was not the person to vote for because she had taken money from Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, who has funded numerous campaigns against Democratic causes.
According to the W.Va. Secretary of State, Frich did receive a $1,000 check from Blankenship during the primary.
West Virginia code says, "No such poll shall be deceptively designed or intentionally conducted in a manner calculated to advocate the election or defeat of any candidate or group of candidates or calculated to influence any person or persons so polled to vote for or against any candidate, group of candidates proposition or other matter to be voted on by the public at any election."
Fleischauer said she is aware her name has come up in some of these phone surveys.
"I don't know anything about this. I've never heard of Central Research," she said. "Polling is very common right now."
Fleischauer said "push polling tries to convince somebody of something" using a large sample. A survey "tests positive and negative messages in a small sample group."
Beakes said the secretary of state's office has had a few broad questions on the legality of push polling during the past few weeks. Complaints made to the secretary of state's office are confidential.
"I can't confirm or deny that any complaints have been filed with the secretary of state's office," Beakes said.
Fleischauer has hired a polling firm, but not Central Research. According to Fleischauer's last campaign finance report submitted Sept. 11, she paid $10,000 to hire Global Strategy Group, a professional polling outfit based in New York.
Fleischauer said her campaign staff suggested she hire Global Strategies.
Global Strategy's clients posted on the company's Web site include Gov. Joe Manchin, former vicepresidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John Edwards, National Abortion and Reproduction and Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood.
Fleischauer said the company is not the one doing the push polls. Frich said the campaign should be about ideas, not personal attacks.
"What's disturbing is the personal attacks are not true," Frich said. "They are inaccurate and personal in nature and not true." Frich said this kind of campaigning goes unpunished.
"The damage will be done before any investigation begins, but that is the purpose of a push poll," she said.