SurveyUSA Copycat?

Legacy blog posts Polls in the News

A quick post on an odd news item on automated pollster Survey USA (via alert reader LS).  The Glens Falls NY Post-Star reported a week ago that SurveyUSA is offering a $1000 reward for a tape recording of an automated survey purportedly conducted by a copy-cat pollster: 

[SurveyUSA president and CEO Jay] Leve said he believes another company impersonating his firm may have conducted the two-question poll, which asked about views on President Bush’s policy in wiretapping and then asked if the recipient of the call supported U.S. Rep. John Sweeney’s bid for re-election.

The campaigns of Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, and Kirsten Gillibrand, his potential Democratic opponent, both have disclaimed the poll…

Several people who received the calls, including Clifton Park Republican Chairman Mike Lisuzzo, said the prerecorded message in last week’s poll did not identify the caller or who was conducting the poll.

Karen Feldman of Hudson, a Gillibrand supporter, said she thought the message mentioned "USA something."

MP quickly discovered that Republican pollsters McLaughlin and Associates list John Sweeney as a client on their web site.  If Gillibrand has a pollster, MP cannot find any information about it online.  However readers should be cautious about jumping to conclusions.  Any number of groups (including the political party organizations and any number of "independent" interest groups) might want to conduct such a survey. 

In related news, SurveyUSA yesterday released the latest wave of results from their 50-state tracking polls.  Their overall weighted job performance rating for President Bush is 40% approve, 57% disapprove, representing a one point decline since January (41% approve, 56% disapprove).

Update:  The Albany Times-Union also reported on the story on Friday, adding this bit of detail:

Recipients said there were only two questions posed in the "robo-poll."

The
first asked if the responder supported the Bush administration’s
domestic surveillance/wiretapping tactics. The second noted that
Sweeney supports the President on this issue, and then asked whether
the responder would vote to re-elect the congressman this fall.

Mark Blumenthal

Mark Blumenthal is political pollster with deep and varied experience across survey research, campaigns, and media. The original "Mystery Pollster" and co-creator of Pollster.com, he explains complex concepts to a multitude of audiences and how data informs politics and decision-making. A researcher and consultant who crafts effective questions and identifies innovative solutions to deliver results. An award winning political journalist who brings insights and crafts compelling narratives from chaotic data.