Index of SPPS Budget Discussion http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/spps-posts.html _________________________________________ In a message dated 3/18/2004 8:48:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> They wanted to know my stance on several issues, my opinions of several political > figures, etc. They asked for my opinions of Randy Kelly and whether he should be > reelected. They then read me a series of long, highly-skewed statements in support > of Randy Kelly, followed by yet another query of my support for Kelly. A pure push > poll. This kind of polling used to be frowned upon, but do we now accept it as an > acceptable practice so long as it's not negative push polling? Actually, this kind of polling this early in the season is a pretty good campaign practice. The idea is to find out what issues associated with the candidate gives you a positive response. It helps the campaign determine how it will define the candidate. For example Kelly has pushed for a baseball stadium and he has pushed for 5,000 units of new housing. If the poll showed one was generating a very positive response and the other was mixed or negative, you move the focus of you message to the more positively received message. Negative push polls that are frowned on are one's where the negative information may not even be true. An example would be if I called you and you said you supported Smith for Mayor. My next question would be, "would you still support Smith for Mayor if his budget plan was proven to bankrupt the city?" Now, Smith's budget plan may or may not bankrupt the city but the idea of the negative push is to get you to question your support for Smith. A favorite of this kind of negative polling is to ID a voter pro-choice or pro-life and then to find those people who are voting for a candidate who isn't the same as them on that issue and drive it as a wedge. So, again, if you have told me that you are pro-life and voting for Smith who happens to be pro-choice, I might say, "would you still support Smith if you knew he supported the murder of unborn babies?" I am trying to push you away from Smith, I am not really polling you at all. Anyway, the kind of poll you took is an attempt to find out what gives you the warm fuzzies about a candidate. Not a bad thing. Chuck Repke _____________________________________________ SPPS Budget Reduction Forum - Feb. 23-27 Co-Sponsored By NEAT: http://www.stpaulneat.org/ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
