February 18, 2005

We Badgers have a reputation for insisting on clean political campaigns. It's no coincidence that when Russ Feingold first ran for senator in the 1992 Democratic primary, he was able to win after trailing in third place partly because his two opponents - the front-runners - spent so much time attacking each other that the voters rejected both of them.

But there's one type of dirty campaign trick that masquerades as legitimate campaign surveys. That nefarious tactic is the "smear poll."

Here's how it works: Your phone rings and the person on the other end says, "Hello! I'm conducting a poll for Public Research Dynamics. Do you plan to vote for Smith or Jones?"

If you answer "Smith," the caller says: "What if you learned that Smith steals candy from children? Would that change your vote? No? How about if you learned that Smith is fighting four paternity suits? No? Well, what if you learned that his mother complains that he never calls home for Christmas, and he likes to torture small animals? Yes? Well, thank you very much for your time."

Obviously, the charges have to be more plausible than those - but they don't have to be true. They can be highly misleading or even outright lies. Smear polls pretend to be real polls, but their actual purpose is to spread ugly rumors.

Real polls contact, perhaps, a few hundred people. But smear polls, using computerized dialing machines and acres of paid callers in warehouses miles away, can spread their sleazy attacks to thousands of voters each hour. The effect on a targeted candidate can be instant and devastating.

Smear polls have a legitimate cousin known as the "push poll." If candidate X learns of something negative about candidate Y, he may want to know whether or not the voters will consider the new information important or irrelevant. To do that, candidate X's campaign will typically ask a few hundred scientifically selected people what they think of the new charge. If candidate X decides to use the charge, he will have to be able to defend its validity.

Smear polls, however, are never solidly identified with any campaign. They are never listed in the disclosure forms campaigns are required to file. Instead, separate groups often do the dirty work technically independently of the actual campaigns, potentially calling thousands of people to plant the seeds of groundless scandal.

Have I ever been the victim of a smear poll? There was one case where a former Wisconsinite took a job at an Ohio phone bank where she was asked to conduct a poll built around hostile questions about me. She was so concerned about the questions that she contacted me to tell me that there was something not quite right about that poll.

Was it a smear poll or a push poll? I don't know for sure, but it sure got my attention.

Accordingly, I've introduced legislation designed to expose true smear polls.

Because candidates should take responsibility for their campaigns, my bill would require all polls conducted on federal candidates which contact more than 1,200 homes to identify the poll's true sponsor - this can be done at the end of the call. For polls which will not be made public, polls' sponsors would be required to file with the Federal Election Commission the cost of the polls, a count of households contacted, and a transcript of the polls' questions.