I got a call from a pollster. Generally I turn them down, because, for some reason I think I have a conflict of interest. In retrospect, I do not think that anyone has any duty to respect the sanctity of the polls, since many of the pollsters themselves do not. However, since this was about the state house race, I took the survey because I do not blog about the state races.
There were a couple of interesting questions outside of the "do you know z, do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of them?"
First, among the candidates, they asked if I knew Steve Huffman, but did not include any of the other congressional candidates. Even more interesting because from the "hypothetical" questions asked, this was obviously a Hershberger poll. In retrospect, however, many of the questions asked were easily transferable to Huffman as well, so I would not be surprised if he was helping to fund the poll as hired polls are usually pretty expensive for state house candidates.
Based on the questions asked, it appears that that Hershberger and perhaps Huffman intend to use education and transportation spending to deflect the immigration issue. The passive aggressive way the questions were formulated almost made me feel like someone who keeps trying to ask the same question a different way in trying to fish for a different answer outside of illegal immigration being the number one issue.
Obviously, I was a sample size of one, but I would infer from the questioning that past polling has shown the immigration issue to be huge, at least for Republican primary voters.
Additionally, I was asked about my religiosity and views on abortion as well. Not sure what to make of that.
7 comments:
I would love to see either race, LD 26 or CD 8, focus on the life issue.
Hershberger and Huffman are both big fans of abortion-on-demand and have a long record on the issue. Their extreme views could easily be turned against them.
Anti-choice activists like Anonymous have yearned for the defeat of ALL THREE Hershbergers, Hellon and Huffman over the years based on some vain hope that LD26 voters will rise up in revolt based on some supposed "pro-life" majority lying dormant in the District. Always, their hopes are crushed by the good sense of the voters, the excellent reputations and high name ID of the aforementioned candidates and the poor alternatives put forth by the far right in LD 26.
The latest example of my latter point above is Jorgenson, who failed to make any headway towards the victory Anonymous hopes for last night while appearing with the other candidates on Arizona Illustrated. While puffing and preening about his conservative credentials, he chose to not take on Hershberger on abortion or any other issue even though he was sitting right next to him! This was in stark contrast to the anti-Hershberger rhetoric posted all over Jorgenson's website, but perhaps he lacks the ability to engage in face to face debate.
Look, it is obvious that LD26 voters agree that abortion should be legal, safe and rare. They also see the hypocrisy inherent in Republicans demanding government intrusion into this private matter. Jorgenson had better move to Mesa or Springerville if he hopes to serve in the Legislature.
Rex,
You are correct. Jorgenson was very passive about Pete’s record on that issue and many other issues. I am not sure it will matter much due to the fact that very few Republicans from 26 were watching. Arizona Illustrated is not known as a GOP show, plus Monday night is not their usual slot for politics.
David has the advantage of being in a 4-way race so he actually has more of a chance than you are giving him. This should be a close race and 2nd place goes to the legislature just like first.
Sorry, but my hunch is that Hershberger and Somers take the GOP primary based on name ID. Even if Jorgenson survives the primary, the Dems were smart and ran only one candidate (Saradnik) in LD26. She is smart, already running a vigorous campaign, has Clean Elections funding to counter GOP private donations and can be comfortable knowing that LD26 voters are often ticket-splitters.
"ticket-splitters"
When was the last time a Democrat represented 26 in the legislature?
Point taken on Dems representing LD26, but I am referring to their willingness to split tickets in other races.
I just got a call for a similar poll except the person first asked me about Hershberger. It was very simple. Favorable or unfavorable. Maybe it was because of my answer of "exteeemly unfavorable" the questioner did not ask me about the issues very much. After Hershberger's name was Jorgenson, Somers, Lovollo, and then Huffman. No other names besides that. Then choose the top issue from a list. That was it.
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