Pollster refused to disclose who paid for negative polling calls
RACINE – A Racine resident recently filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board seeking to find out who paid for polling calls in the 21st Senate District earlier this month. The resident received a call at home and asked who was paying for the call, but the pollster refused to disclose that information.
“Refusing to say who is paying for a poll is illegal in Wisconsin,” said Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for the State Senate Democratic Committee.
The poll was conducted by ProMark Research, which is a large polling corporation based in Texas. ProMark Research made calls into other Wisconsin Senate Districts around the state being targeted by Senate Republicans this fall.
“Many supporters of Senator John Lehman called his campaign office upset by the misleading calls and wanted to know who was paying for them. When they asked the pollster calling them, they were not given that information That is a clear violation of Wisconsin law,” said Lynch.
Similar calls from ProMark Research were being funded by the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate (CERS) earlier this year in other parts of the state. Lynch noted that the highly negative tone of the calls coming from this firm into Wisconsin suggest CERS is having a hard time selling their candidates to Wisconsin residents.
“Extremely negative calls like these mean CERS has found little support for their candidates. Using an out-of-state polling firm known for doing push polls in other states to try to tear down strong candidates like John Lehman proves the people of Racine County aren’t buying Van Wanggard’s dismal record as a local politician or his support for the failed economic policies of the past,” said Lynch.
“Voters in Wisconsin won’t be fooled by these illegal polling calls trying to prop up struggling Senate Republican candidates. The complaint filed about the calls into the 21st Senate District will get to the bottom of who is doing all of these phone calls supporting Wanggaard’s campaign,” concluded Lynch.
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