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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Terri McCormick's Poll Numbers

Berry Laker is angry, and you wouldn't like him when he is angry. If you're on the Terri McCormick campaign team, that is (that's his red):
I will now cross off Terry McCormick off my list of candidates for the upcoming primary election. I will also call it like I see it on McCormick's campaign. I am conservative first, republican second and will not vote for a RINO! We do not need another Steve Kagen like Terry McCormick in the 8th district in Wisconsin.
The cause of this anger was a news story in Door County Style.com that reported poll results from the WI-8 race showing McCormick with a lead. The problem is that the news story was a barely reworked version of a McCormick campaign press release. Leading Laker to ask this:
Does Stephen Kastner work for Terry McCormick? Is he a paid campaign worker? Does he have his own agenda? What gives? [Kastner is the editor and publisher of Door County Style]
I had seen the McCormick press release before I saw the Door County Style piece on Monday. As soon as I did, I realized where the story originated. I seriously thought about contacting Kastner myself, but I couldn't think of a tactful way to ask if barely reworked press releases counted as journalism at his publication. Instead, I did a little digging on the poll itself.

The press release noted that the poll was conducted by Dane & Associates and I recognized that name from McCormick's FEC filings. The campaign had reported at least two payments to Dane totalling about $3500 for fundraising.

I contacted the McCormick campaign and they confirmed that the Dane & Associates from the poll and the fundraising activities were the same firm, stating:
The poll was originally conducted as an internal poll to determine where Terri was in the race, and wasn’t conducted for the promotions purposes. The campaign wanted a true picture of her chances of winning. We got it, and we know that Terri can win this race.
Campaigns conduct polls all the time, I don't think we should read too much in to the fact that a McCormick sponsored poll shows her in the lead. Terri McCormick is a serious candidate who has been around the district for some time, she has a dedicated following and a substantial amount of name recognition.

I do think it would have been good to explain that this was an internal poll in the press release. It would be even better if we had access to the full results including the questions, which I don't think are available anywhere.

Finally, I can't help but wonder about the timing of the release of the poll numbers. Yes, they may give a "true picture of her chances of winning," but it's also true that fundraising numbers for the candidates were recently released. Given McCormick's anemic finances, perhaps the release of these poll numbers is intended as a show of strength, strength that's not reflected in her bank account balance.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everyone I talked to that read that article was absolutely flabergasted! Terri is NOT ahead in legitimate polls; in fact, she has been encouraged by many to withdraw from the race because of her meager finances. babs

Anonymous said...

I don't know how you could look at that poll and honestly say it shows Terri stands out. The margin of error is 4.5%. That means Trager and Roth join in a statistical dead heat. Given that Roth and McCormick already have name recognition, I'd have to guess these numbers are actually a boon for Trager. Not to mention the 50% undecided, which to me means that neither McCormick's nor Roth's name is enough and people are looking for something different. Your best point is that we don't know what questions were asked or to whom and without that this poll is garbage.

Anonymous said...

GO TERRI!!

D said...

Terri a RINO? Evidently people don't know what RINO means these days. Someone who is a Republican in Name Only is someone who advocates endlessly BIGGER government, given that this party is supposed to be made up of conservatives.
Terri's stance on the issues of illegal wars, the FED, civil liberties, and spending place her FIRMLY as one of only 2 Real conservatives in this race, the other being Ribble.
It's time for people to realize that being conservative and Republican does NOT mean simply shifting the use of our massive government to their pet projects, it means making government smaller.
Terri a RINO? Calling Mr. Orwell...

Anonymous said...

GO TERRI - You are the right leader for this time! With Judge Napolitano, Freedom Watch, and Fox Business News believing in you - know the PEOPLE BELIEVE IN YOU TOO!

WHERE ARE THE OTHER CANDIDATE'S POLLS? THEY TOOK THEM I was bothered by them - and theya re not releasing them!

GO TERRI! WE NEED YOUR LEADERHSIP IN THIS STATE BECAUSE THE ESTABLISHMENT HAVE NO IDEAS.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating ... Are you another 'out of work' Madison staffer? There are 3 of you that have tape on their glasses and are whining that Terri McCormick is ahead of the polls and can win this thing. Makes me believe that Terri is the only conservative in the race - in the same crowd as Brian Miller, Jim DeMint and is one of the Freshman Fifty - Get with it Wisconsin - http://libertyslate.com/candidates/overview-of-candidates/

Anonymous said...

Well if Terri wins we will have a mentally unstable psycho in office. People need to wake up to how superficial this woman is. It's true that her children can't even stand her!