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This came over the transom from Daniel Chavez, campaign manager for State Sen. Alan Lowenthal in his race against Long Beach City Councilman Gary DeLong for the 47th District seat in Congress.
Friends,
Right now Republican Gary DeLong or some organization on his behalf is “push-polling” voters with aggressively negative information about Alan Lowenthal.
Have you been a victim of this deceptive and unethical attack?
“Push-polling” is a deceptive practice where voters are misled into believing they are participating in a valid opinion survey, but are instead delivered a long list of misleading and negative information about a candidate, in this case Alan Lowenthal.
Email us at info@AlanLowenthal.com if you have received one of these push-poll calls.
Push-polling occurs when candidates unable to win on their records come to the conclusion they can only win through tricking voters with misleading negative attacks.
Too often, it works. Don’t let Republican Gary DeLong’s campaign win by breaking the rules. Let us know if you have received one of these “push-polls” so we can expose these tactics to the light of day, and dispel the lies.
I’ve seen a lot of negative campaigns in my time, but never one that started this early and this aggressively. It shows how much the Republicans in Congress are willing to hit below the belt to defeat Alan Lowenthal, and instead elect another Republican vote for their anti-middle class, anti-health-care, and pro-corporation agenda.
Don’t let that happen here. Let us know right away if you’ve been a victim of Republican dirty tricks.
Email us at info@AlanLowenthal.com or call our office at (562) 594-4300.
Daniel Chavez
Campaign Manager
Alan Lowenthal for Congress
5555 Stearns Street, Ste. 206
Long Beach, CA 90815
(562) 594-4300
I strongly disagree with Chavez about one thing: if you have received this push poll call, you should first post a comment here telling us everything you remember about it, and then e-mail the Lowenthal campaign with the details.
For those of you who have never experienced a push poll, it would usually assess your likelihood to vote for the candidates and then ask you questions such as:
“Would it affect your vote if you were informed that Gary DeLong embezzled $1.2 million from a former business and was only not successfully prosecuted due to a technicality?”
“Would it affect your vote if you were informed that Gary DeLong has had sexual affairs while in office with three city janitorial workers, seven city clerical workers, and two police horses?”
“Would it affect your vote if you were informed that Gary DeLong has been involved with several cults that keep members falsely imprisoned and drain their personal and family resources until they are used up, at which point they are shipped to do manual labor in South America?”
Would it make you more likely, or less likely, to vote for Gary DeLong if you knew that he once pulled the head off of a terrified puppy and ate it, all on live TV? All right, is that strongly or slightly less likely?
By the way, none of that’s true — I just made up each one out of whole cloth — but they really stick in your mind, don’t they? They’re likely to affect your initial impression and to get people talking in a whisper campaign about DeLong’s actions. (Push polls don’t include the denial that I just gave here.) And the best part, from the perspectives of the miscreants who do this, is that it isn’t even lying. “I’m not asserting that he did these things, I’m just asking you if it would affect your vote if he did do these things.” If you’re really impressed by the ethical difference there, you may have a role waiting for you in the DeLong campaign or whatever sympathetic group is paying for these stinking rotten polls.
In my grad school training in public opinion research, we were told that AAPOR (the relevant professional organization) considered push polls to be an unethical abomination. I’d love to find out who’s conducting these polls so that maybe, for once, there could be some ethical consequences.
More likely it is a baseline poll to test positive and negative campaign messages with a sample large enough to give meaningful results, generally around 400 voters.
In contrast, a push poll includes a much larger number of voters so that its purpose is manipulating, rather than measuring opinion.
Could be. Isn’t necessarily. It would depend on how large a number of people have been reached. We’re just taking an initial sounding here to figure that out, as I doubt that whoever is doing this will be forthcoming with the details.
I received one of these proported surveys. The surveyor was displeased with my responses and quotes of Lowenthal’s contributions as a current state senator. The push poll questions dealt with whether I thought he should receive an additional pension from the federal level, questions about his personal investments, positions on education and the state debt. I will be voting for Lowenthal due to his experience, involvement in the community and his stance to better air conditions in the Long Beach port area.
Do tell us more! I expect that if this is a baseline poll, such as Quimby suspects, the Lowenthal campaign would be very interested in the details of what lines of attack are being prepared for him. The desire not to tip one’s hand is one reason that polls like this are less likely than they might be. Then again, the odds against someone learning about these probes as to possible attacks and then post this sort of information about them, allowing others to verify it, might strike those paying for them as quite high. (Oops!)
Sounds to me like the Lowenthal Campaign is already running scared.
Seems like the Lowenthal campaign doesn’t like underhanded campaign tactics and is making those using them suffer by calling them to public light. Seems like you can’t tell the difference between that and “running scared.”
I just looked at the DeLong website. He is a Long Beach city council member, no experience at the state level, and is undertaking these underhanded tactics is further evidence as to why I will be voting for Lowenthal.
Wow, I didn’t have an opinion until now…but sounds like both of you are part of a propaganda team.
Yup, that proves it – TWO Lowenthal supporters who find this tactic objectionable = A CONSPIRACY!!!
oh. I guess that would include me.
You got anything to say, Muriel, about this poll?
You did so have an opinion. Your opinion was:
You just didn’t have a defensible opinion.
Were they telling lies in their “poll” or were they telling facts? Obviously, even if they were telling facts, it seems to be underhanded to do so under the guise of a “poll”?
I don’t know. If it was a “push poll,” though, they lied to those whom they called about it being a “poll.” They didn’t say “hey, can we have several minutes of your time to expose you to what may be dubious negative messages about our political opponent”?
Good point…
I have participated in several true polls over the years. This was quite different. The “surveyor” kept saying would this statement change your mind about voting for Lowenthal? There was also a hypothetical section which asked which candidate I would vote for if they answered this way in a debate. When I offered facts to rebut there comments the surveyor was irritable. This was no survey.
You would have been ethically justified in making up a story about how your end-of-the-world cult wants you to act and invite DeLong to cater to the end-of-the-world cult voters, with human sacrifices, naked whirling dervishes, etc. Keep him on the phone for an hour. The guy sounds like he earned it.
Trying to locate the source of the push poll? Check out the Los Alamitos campaign filings (460 forms) of REP Troy Edgar. He is the father of negative, character destroying campaign tactics in Los Alamitos city politics. He spent quite a bit in “Polling” in little Los Alamitos to get his foot into the door of Orange county Rep politics.
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why are you being a beard for Lowenthall? just to hear your own voice?
A.L. has already signed a condo lease in D.C.
G.D. is running for Mayor of L.B.
You O.C. hacks are gullible.
No; no; I don’t believe you; not yet he ain’t; we’ll see.
By the way: how do you suppose that “beard” is defined in that context?
I think, Greg, this very sophisticated Long Beacher is saying that Alan Lowenthal is gay, and that you are attempting to hide his homosexuality by pretending to be his wife. Oh, when will we simple OC bumpkins ever attain the wisdom of those across the county line?
I have a question for Alan:
1) California has approximately $250B (that billion) in unfunded liability. Considering that Alan was in office during this time, what is his plan to pay for it? OR is he going to wash his hands of this problem since he is going to be term’d out?
2) A few years ago Boeing laid off close to 1,000 engineers at it’s Long Beach facility. Those jobs went to Kansas City. During Alan Lowenthal’s tenure Boeing (formely Douglass Aircraft) has been slashed and torn. What plan does Alan have to bring those jobs back to Long Beach
3) California was once the 4th largest economy in the world. It’s ranking has been sinking like rats on a ship. How of this does Alan claim is his responsibility or any at all?
4) During Alan’s tenure California’s credit rating has slipped from AAA to 2 steps above junk bond status. What did Alan do during his tenure to preserve our credit rating?
5) California is continously ranked at the bottom as being one of the least friendly states to do business in. Alan has never had a real job, so what qualifies his as having enough economic expertise to create new jobs?
I don’t think that Alan has ever posted here, so he’s not likely to see (let alone answer) your questions, but feel free to use this link for … whatever.
I should point out that “Alan has never had a real job” is either an outright lie or stupendous ignorance. His degree is in Community Psychology and he was a respected member of the faculty at Cal State Long Beach when I was a student in that department in the early 1980s. Your failure to check that out before making such an assertion doesn’t give a lot of reason for confidence in the other assertions you make.
Like I said, Alan has never had a real job. And of course Alan would never answer my questions, he would just give vague answer and avoid the issues completely. Alan has done a wonderful job of doing his share of running California straight into the gutter, Now he taking everything he has learning and taking it to Washington DC. Spend into oblivion and let the next several generations deal with it.
So, teaching is not “a real job.” You define yourself with these comments more than you define Alan.
Once again: when I was getting my Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at Cal State Long Beach, Alan Lowenthal was a respected and admired member of the faculty.
So let’s get this over with: so that we can see where you are coming from, do you consider that to be “a real job”? (Cue the theme music from Jeopardy.)
(If he would “never answer your questions,” I begin to have some inkling of why that might be.)
Well Greg, since you are Alan’s stool pigeon, why don’t you answer those 5 questions I asked. Just 5 simple questions.
Look up stool pigeon first.
Is Greg secretly informing you on Alan’s criminal activities, or is he secretly informing Alan of your criminal activities?
Methinks you coulda used a good teacher in school like Alan Lowenthal. Important job, teaching.
Lowenthal would have been especially useful for him, community psychology being an appropriate choice.
Now I’m Alan’s “stool pigeon”? Don’t be a stool, pigeon.
Did Alan ever have to deal with getting environmental permits for a construction project? Did he ever have to deal with workman’s comp or professional liability insurance? Did he ever have to look at this personal bank account and his business bank account and not have enough to pay his employees? When was the last time he built a business from absolute scratch putting his entire life savings on the line? When was the last time he got a pink slip with slim job prospects?
But no, he lived in the ivory tower and looked down upon the rest of us working stiffs. With tenure, protection and a pay check courtesy of the California tax payer. How lovely. Health benefits paid for, large retirement fund all courtesy of the Calfornia tax payer. The same California tax payer that is going to pay for $250B in unfunded liability.
So California is nearly bankrupt and Jerry Brown is begging for a tax increase. Alan was part of this entire build up of wasted money and promisses he had no intentions of keeping and you want to send him to Washington??????????
ALL CALIFORNIA POLITICIANS (IRREGARDLESS OF POLITICAL AFFILIATION) NEEDS TO BE SENT PACKING !!!!!!!!!! We don’t need any of their ‘leadership’ and we sure don’t need their idea of fiscal responsibility.
Enjoy drinking the liberal kool-aid Vern. I received a real education and a real degree (engineering, a degree that requires real thinking). Bozo degrees like Psychology are a dime a dozen.
Well, that’s your opinion, a minority one. I think engineering and psychology are both equally important.
And also, please learn to use the “reply” button, Mr. Engineer.
And since ‘ol Vern wants to stick her nose in my business, why don’t YOU answer my 5 questions. Unless you are afraid to.
I’ll see if I can clear up a little time to do that for you, if Diamond doesn’t first. Workin’ on something else right now, no time for anything but sparkling repartee…
(Oh, and do you really think Vern is a female name, Mr. Engineer, or are you just trying to be snotty?)
I believe that the creature of DeLong believes that you are “LaVerne,” surely!
I’m not going to answer questions of Lowenthal’s behalf. I will answer them on Mitt Romney’s behalf, though: “Argle-bargle! Derp!”
Looking back at the various comments on this thread, I wonder if
BradGary DeLong supporters are particularly prone to malapropisms. Susan Clarke misused “beard”, and Jerry Spence misused “stool pigeon,” when they both meant something like “apologist” or “shill.” It’s all very telling, about the DeLongeurs’ anti-teacher, anti-education agenda.It’s Gary DeLong. Brad DeLong is the good economist. Very different.
Isn’t it cute when a campaign first discovers social media?