Maine Democrats are taking issue with a telephone survey that they say tries to test possible vulnerabilities of gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud on several key issues. It's not clear yet whether the survey crosses over into a so-called "push poll," but the Michaud campaign says the line of questioning is clearly negative and distorts the candidate's record. But Michaud's political foes say his record is still his record.
Most polls are designed to ask a series of questions. but in this case, the caller opens with a statement: "Michaud is simply not the best candidate for progressives," says the pollster, in this audio clip.
This audio copy of the unidentified pollster was verified by the Maine Democratic Party as the same voice that was heard by random Democrats over the last few days. During the three-minute live interview, the pollster repeatedly cites examples of Michaud's voting record on several core Democratic issues.
"In the state Legislature, Michaud voted 19 times against efforts to end discrimination of LGBT people in Maine," said the pollster. "He also voted repeatedly against a woman's right to choose an abortion in Augusta and in Congress, and Michaud has accepted more than $18,000 in campaign contributions from the NRA and voted to weaken gun laws. Now does this raise very serious doubts, serious doubts, minor doubts or no real doubts?"
For the record, the respondent said the information prompted no real doubts regarding her support for Michaud - Maine Democratic Party Chair Ben Grant says the pollster was unfairly characterizing Michaud's record, which the candidate himself has acknowledged as having evolved since he first took office in 1981 as a state legislator.
And Grant says that what poll really shows is that Michaud's opponents are worried.
"What we know from all of this is where the race stands and clearly there are two candidates - Paul LePage and Eliot Cutler - who don't like where the race stands," Grant says. "So someone out there is trying to help one of those two candidates along by drumming up this kind of phony polling to damage Mike Michaud."
"This is the type of campaigning that people are tired of in Maine," says Lizzy Reinholt, Michaud's communications director. Reinholt says the pollster's line of questioning reveals a darker side of Maine politics.
"They're tired of the divisiveness and the attacks, yet we continue to see it both from Gov. LePage and Eliot Cutler," Reinholt says. "And sadly, we can't stop either of them or outside groups from going on the attack."
Reinholt says the pollster ignores Michaud's expressed support of a woman's right to seek an abortion, and leaves the impression that the NRA's support of Michaud would also imply that he does not favor responsible gun laws. Reinholt says the poll did catch the campaign off guard.
"We just found out about it last night," Reinholt says. "No matter what, this is politics today and that's the unfortunate thing, and this campaign and this election is far too important to get distracted by attacks and distortions like these."
"There's no distortion about Mike Michaud's record," says Crystal Canney.
At the headquarters of independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler, spokeswoman Canney flatly denied that the Cutler campaign had anything to do with the poll. But Canney says Michaud's earlier votes against pro-choice legislation, gay rights law and NRA support are fair game in the campaign, even if they have changed over time.
MaryEllen FitzGerald, who owns Critical Insights polling in Portland, says the unidentified pollster's work is amateurish and probably doesn't rise to the level of a push poll, which is sample large numbers of homes in an attempt to sway opinion rather than gauge it.
"I don't think it will necessarily impact him unless the administration was across a broader population," FitzGerald says. "If they did 10,000 of those, it's a push poll. If they did 400 to 600, it's not really going to turn the election. So whoever did this, this is clearly a penny-wise and pound-foolish thing."
Reached by e-mail, the campaign to re-elect Republican Gov. Paul LePage also denied any connection to the poll.