Did anyone else get a Karl Rovian research poll phone call after the SOTU address last night?

February 3, 2005 1:15 PM

Did anyone else get a Karl Rovian research poll phone call after the SOTU address last night? [mi]

It was a 45 second automated poll, with questions very much like some that accompanied some RNC mailings during the Presidential campaigns. I'd like to find out more about the polling company. I think it was called "Election Research".

All yes or no questions, including:
Did you watch the Address?
Do you support the President's Iraq policies?
Do you consider yourself a Republican?
Do you consider yourself a Democrat?
There were also 2 very slanted questions about Social Security and "Tax breaks".

I never get political research poll calls, so I am curious to learn more about who paid for this one.

posted by obloquy to grab bag (9 comments total)

OK, well, it is probably these guys, but I'm still wondering who paid for it and whence was gotten my phone number.
posted by obloquy at 1:25 PM on February 3, 2005

"and whence was gotten my phone number."

Since it was fully automated, I suspect you were just plain old wardialed.
posted by majick at 1:38 PM on February 3, 2005

I got a message on my answering machine from them. I was annoyed at seeing W's face on all my channels, so I decided to go out for dinner.

And I thought it was bizarre too because I never get poll calls either.
posted by mileena at 1:43 PM on February 3, 2005

It's nice to not have a land phone line....
posted by matildaben at 2:23 PM on February 3, 2005

I have two thoughts about that. First is that as it was a recording, only asked yes or no questions and mainly focused on broad demographics, this was probably an attempt to collect valid phone numbers and party memberhship in anticipation of more in-depth future polling. Have a machine make 10,000 calls to find valid Republican phone numbers, then have a person call them back to do the real survey.

Second, those "slanted" questions are part of a technique known as "push polling," wherein the survey questions are designed to influence voters, not collect data. Perhaps most famously used by Bush & Co. in the South Carolina Republican primary against John McCain; a survey was conducted asking voters if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate black baby (McCain and his wife have an adopted Cambodian daughter with a dark complexion).
posted by ChasFile at 3:26 PM on February 3, 2005

Do you have Caller ID? Try Googling the phone number. I've done that before.
posted by bkdelong at 4:27 PM on February 3, 2005

bkdelong, no caller ID. matildaben, there but for my DSL, although the big old corded land line is a lot more comfortable to use.
ChasFile, I hadn't thought about the possibility that they were collecting valid numbers nor weeding for likemindedness. It was definitely a push poll (hence my Karl Rove reference)- the contextless question "Do you think you should pay more taxes, and that the President should eliminate tax breaks", or something similar, was what reminded me of the RNC questionnaires I'd read last year.

Thanks for the responses, all.
posted by obloquy at 7:19 PM on February 3, 2005

As far as I know, polling after the SOTU is routine and the government/we pay for it. Whether it was a push poll or not, I have no idea.
posted by scazza at 9:05 PM on February 3, 2005

There's a West Wing episode about the SOTU phone poll.

Even if it's common, though, I'd love to find out who the poller was. Time to get the insects out from under the floorboards.
posted by Miko at 7:02 AM on February 4, 2005