Romney's fake troopers sporting fake badges.
Posted on 11/19/2007 7:05:11 AM PST by greyfoxx39
News broke Thursday that voters in New Hampshire and Iowa had received phone calls from pollsters raising questions about aspects of Republican Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. Who made the calls? Although the Romney campaign denies involvement, evidence points in its general direction.
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The phone is ringing, and I don't recognize the number,
All Caller ID says is, "NAME UNAVAILABLE".
Please help me figure out who is calling and what they want
Site users can post information about the calls they have received and who they came from, creating a searchable reference for others. On Whocalled.us there are 16 reports of people receiving unwanted calls from Western Wats using the phone number (801) 623-4621 going back to October of last year. Dial that number and you will be connected to Western Wats.
On another website, Whocallsme.com, “a user supplied database of phone numbers of telemarketers, non-profit organizations, charities, political surveyors, SCAM artists, and other companies that don't leave messages, disconnect once you answer, ignore the Do-Not-Call List regulations, and simply interrupt your day,” has a page tracking unwanted calls from the number above.
According to Whocallsme.com, on August 16 — almost exactly three months before the anti-Romney calls were made in Iowa and New Hampshire, a user named Bruce reported:
Call from Amanda at Target Point Consulting
www.targetpointconsulting.com
66 Canal Center Plaza No. 555
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 535-8505
fax: (703) 535-8517
info@targetpointconsulting.com
Caller ID: (801) 623-4621 [Emphasis Added]
Caller: Target Point Consulting
A Western Wats-Target Point connection sets off alarm bells since the Romney campaign has paid Target Point consulting $720,000 (see here and here).
Target Point’s president, Alex Gage, is a pioneer in the direct-marketing data-mining technique known as microtargeting. The Bush campaign spent nearly $3 million on Gage and Target Point’s services in the 2004 election. In the 2008 election cycle, Gage has been working closely with Romney. The Washington Post headlined an article about Gage “Romney’s Data Cruncher” and has elsewhere identified Gage as part of “Mitt Romney’s Inner Circle.”
Adding to the intrigue, Western Wats employs a dialer named Amanda Earnshaw who, according to election records, has made the maximum allowable donation of $2,300 to Romney’s campaign. Further, Federal Election Commission records reveal that Amanda’s husband Seth Hutchings, her father Craig Earnshaw, mother Colleen, and brother Berton have all maxed out donations to the Romney campaign. Craig Earnshaw is active in Romney’s campaign, serving as Utah’s co-chair for the state’s “Rally for Romney” fundraiser on September 28, 2007.
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For its part, Western Wats has issued a statement on its website denying that it engages in push polling although the only source that the company has spoken to about the matter is a blogger on mymanmitt.com. However, there’s a growing chorus of voices speculating Romney push polled himself. “I smell a dirty trick. I suspect a pro-Romney motive to inoculate against future use of the religious issue and to breed sympathy for Romney … a 20-minute call is the work of an amateur. The long call is designed to get ALL the negatives out, to put them off limits for future attacks,” Roger Stone — a master of Republican dirty tricks — told The Politico’s Jonathan Martin. Stone pointed out that Robert F. Kennedy was behind anti-Catholic campaign tricks — calls and literature — to help get the first Catholic president elected. -SNIP-
Asked if it’s reasonable to think a campaign would do such a thing — push poll itself — one political consultant familiar with phone banking and dirty tricks who asked not to be identified told NRO, “I’ve done it,” he said. “But it’s usually the kind of thing that you do in a close state-senate race, not a stunt you pull under the scrutiny a presidential campaign is subjected to.”
He also said that the fact Western Wats has been working with Romney supporters is telling. As Sam Stein of the Huffington Post has noted,
Western Wats’ past client list includes several high-profile Romney supporters. The company has worked for Allan Bense, the Florida House Speaker who chairs Romney’s Florida Statewide Steering Committee, and has made calls for Michigan State Representative Gary Newell, who serves on Romney’s Michigan Leadership Team. Western Wats also made phone calls for Rep. Tom Feeney (R., Fla.) — a co-chair of Romney’s Florida Committee — as recently as July 29. Romney’s former deputy campaign manager Jason Roe was Feeney’s chief of staff just prior to working for Romney. -SNIP- According to another source at a rival campaign who wished to remain anonymous, there’s speculation that Romney may have push polled himself because his campaign wanted polling data regarding the negative perception of his Mormon faith for internal use. But since they couldn’t do so without causing controversy, they took steps to make it look like McCain. |
Ping
It wasn’t Romney or his campaign. It very well could be an over enthusiastic wild eyed supporter.
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/11/16/hmmm-senior-vp-at-polling-firm-blamed-for-anti-mitt-anti-mormon-calls-donated-to-romney/
I hope it ruins the Romney campaign. That man is the absolute worst candidate we have... well, maybe Paul wins that one. Still, a Romney candidacy will sunder the GOP badly. Romney is a man without principle.
Romney’s team responds [from the Corner at NRO]:
Team Romney on Push-Poll Connections [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
After reading the Hemingway piece, Kevin Madden, Romney for President campaign spokesman replies:
Let me be perfectly clear: our campaign was not and is not involved with any efforts to engage in alleged push polling calls against our own candidate.
The insinuation made by the National Review post is highly misleading, and I emphatically reject the entire premise of the headline and the theories promoted by anonymous political consultants cited in the posting.
Even cursory reviews of news reports would indicate that the research firm in question, Western Wats, is a prominent research collection company that was used by firms that are currently employed by rival campaigns. But, our campaign has been careful not to accuse anyone, especially since we have contacted the Office of the Attorney General in New Hampshire in an effort to get to the bottom of this matter.
Again, our campaign is not involved with efforts against our own candidate, and I reject outright even the slightest insinuation to the contrary.
You should put quotes around that. Every time the Romney sleaze machine gets caught that is the pat answer.
Okay....I’ve got to make a joke
Isn’t it a sin in Mormonism to push-pull yourself?
Is there a link for the NRO article?
There is another angle to this. Even if this Wasn’t done by the Romney campaign, wouldn’t Western Wats have done something about it, perhaps leaking it to Romney, given all the campaign and Mormon ties?
Western Wats has some ‘splaining to do.
Did Mitt Romney Push Poll Himself?
Moderator, can you edit this link in, please?
To add to my own comment, why would a non-Romney Presidential campaign EVER call up a push-poller in Orem Utah to do anti-Mormon polling??? You’d have to be crazy, or stupid as a brick. It would be like calling Schoen Penn to do anti-Hillary push polling.
I am sorry, I don’t think Romney is slime. This is ridiculous.
Great article. I’ve talked to the author of the article, Mark Hemingway, in the past through emails when the Fred Thompson smears were tracked back to the Romney campaign.
At no time did they deny being the sponsor of the calls. At no time did they deny contracting Western Wats to make these calls. All they have really denied is undertaking any action that would hurt their candidate...and they may yet be proven wrong on that.
His campaign has been involved in some pretty underhanded actions in the past.
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