CEDAR FALLS
Political mudslinging is often a part of all election games. But this one seems to be making a precedent of sorts.
Incumbent state Rep. William G. Witt, D-Cedar Falls, said his opponent Don. F. Findlay is push polling in the 23rd District to swing voter opinion.
"Eight people told me that they were push polled last week," Witt said, "Mr. Findlay is trying to undermine public perception of my views on issues."
Iowa Democratic Chairman Rob Tully said Wednesday that voters in several Iowa House districts are receiving "push polling" campaign telephone calls.
"They are one of the most deceptive and detrimental tactics either party can utilize," Tully said.
Push polling is a negative campaign tactic disguised as a survey. The caller identifies voters supporting the opposition and "tries to polarize the particular voter against the particular candidate," Tully said.
Bruce Rieks, staff member of University of Northern Iowa who received one such call last week, said, "I thought it was very strange."
"It seemed obvious that they were trying to ask questions related to issues that would confuse the average person and it definitely didn't seem like a poll. I felt like I was being manipulated," Rieks said.
Rieks was asked three questions – If the 2000 general elections for Iowa House was held today and he had to make a choice, would he vote for Don Findlay or Bill Witt ? The next two questions were framed to show the candidates stand on issues: Don Findlay supports making English the official language of Iowa and Witt opposes it. Knowing this, who would you vote for? Would you vote for Witt knowing that he supported giving all teachers a pay raise as opposed to Findlay who supports a plan to pay teachers more based on student performance?
Even though the origin of the poll is unknown, the calls triggered a set of pamphlets from both sides. Witt's supporters distributed pamphlets warning voters not to be fooled "by phony phone calls."
Findlay's camp did not take it lying down, either. To counter his opponent's allegations his supporters distributed pamphlets saying "Just who's trying to fool who?" and went about listing Witt's voting record on a number of education issues.
"It was definitely a poll conducted by Findlay's people," said Joanne White, a teacher, who also received the call. "All the questions were slanted toward Findlay."
Findlay denied his involvement, and said that the poll was conducted by the Republican Party of Iowa without his knowledge. But he said the questions asked did not qualify as "push poll questions."
"When you ask the position of a voter on a certain issue and state a candidate's position on an issue, do you consider that push polling?" Findlay said. "I only know of the poll conducted by the state party and they projected even my stand wrongly on the issue of English as the state's official language, and that shows that I had no connection with it (the poll) whatsoever. "
When contacted, however, a state Republican Party spokeswoman said she was not familiar with any such poll being conducted by the party.
Tully released a letter he sent Wednesday to Iowa Republican Chairman Kayne Robinson, asking him to investigate several reports of push polling.
"The Republican Party of Iowa is not sponsoring any push poll phone calls" said Robinson. "Democrat Chairman Rob Tully is trying to hide the fact that push polling is a tactic Democrats have perfected. Republican polling is based on issues and actual votes of state legislative candidates."
The Republicans in June, three weeks after the primary, accused Senate Minority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, of push polling with negative personal attacks.
Tully said he has received calls from people in Perry, Manchester and Fairfield to report calls from a Utah company that they believed used push polling.
"It's not keeping with the tradition of the district," said Witt who is serving his fourth term in the House. " No one has ever been push polled before this for a state race."
