When Sinister Polls Backfire

When professional pollsters ask "What's going on in Hoboken?" and start apologizing for asking misleading and extremely biased questions, you know it's political season in our town.

Within a few minutes of receiving the phone call this week, it became apparent that this poll was on behalf of Tim Occhipinti (although I don't know if he himself was involved in producing it).

My wife and I were getting so disturbed by some of the polling questions that we asked if anyone had a similar response.  The pollster said he understood how we feel because of the more than 100 people he had surveyed, over 90% were equally outraged and said they couldn't answer half the questions because they were outright lies.

So a question like "If you realized that Dawn Zimmer was responsible for flooding in Hoboken would that make you more or less likely to vote for her?' had no answer - so the pollster had to check the "not sure" box.

I've been in charge of research departments at a broadcast network and major ad agencies for more than 20 years. I've produced and analyzed many surveys. I have no doubt that the purpose of this poll was not to derive any valid insights into voter preferences. Rather, it was designed to spread malicious lies about Dawn Zimmer's record and to persuade undecided voters, that anyone, even Tim Occhipinti, would be a better choice.

If that was the goal, they failed spectacularly.  I spoke to 3 other people who also got the phone call, and each was told by their pollster (based in Florida) that 90% of the more than 100 potential voters called were outraged by the questions.  The result was probably to re-energize any Zimmer supporters who were reached, and push many undecideds to her corner.

The sad part is that it seemed as though this poll was designed to persuade a third-tier candidate that he actually has a chance to win.  Questions were worded so that there was no possible positive answer for Mayor Zimmer.  Several questions were about some hypothetical virtuous unnamed candidate.  A question such as "If there was a candidate who fought against raising taxes, fought to prevent flooding, and cared about ALL of Hoboken, would you be likely to vote for him?"  Well, hard to say no to that one, but whoever designed this poll will likely be telling Tim that all the people who said yes to those types of questions are supporting him.

Regardless of who you support, this type of poll is disgusting, and whomever is responsible for putting it in the field (I'll give Tim the benefit of the doubt) should be embarrassed.