Yesterday at TPM we brought you news of a “push poll” operation in Maryland in which voters were reportedly asked whether they supported medical research experiments on unborn babies. This afternoon, Paul spoke with the man responsible for those calls and similar ones against at least four other Senate Democratic candidates.
Zeke Smith, the executive director of the non-profit “Common Sense Ohio,” said his group was behind thousands of calls to voters in Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, South Dakota and elsewhere — oh, right, Ohio. He defended his group’s questions (“Do you want your taxes raised?”). “Push polls” are used to spread negative information about a candidate, and are rarely used to collect respondent’s answers.
The questions used “accurate characterizations,” Smith said, and insisted his group was legitimately engaged in “data collection.”
“There are a fair number of things that are unpleasant to talk about,” Smith said. “But that doesn’t make [our questions] any less accurate.” His group is organized as a 501(c)(4)-type nonprofit, which requires the bulk of its advocacy to be on behalf of particular issues, not for particular candidates.
Common Sense Ohio was behind similar push-poll calls against Democrats in Senate races in Montana, Tennessee, Maryland and Ohio, Smith said. The group also called voters regarding the Ohio governor’s race, and a South Dakota anti-abortion initiative.
Smith said he created the group to be active in Ohio — hence the name — but was approached by activists in other states to “help,” presumably by orchestrating thousands of his unique brand of negative phone “survey” calls. “We have been approached by others in other states for help in their campaigns,” Smith said.
Smith confirmed that his group uses a firm called ccAdvertising to make his calls. The “Economic Freedom Foundation,” the GOP-backed campaign group Paul has covered extensively, also uses ccAdvertising. The group specializes in “robo calling,” in which machines make thousands of unsolicited phone calls.