Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn confirms that he and city council Position 8 candidate Mike O'Brien are jointly paying for a computerized phone poll that tests, among other things, voters' reactions to the proposed $4.2 billion waterfront tunnel.

According to someone who received one of the "robo-calls" last night, the poll asks respondents who they're supporting for mayor; informs them that Mayor Greg Nickels plans to spend $930 million in city funds for the tunnel (including $65 million in car-tab taxes, $200 million in additional parking taxes, $252 million in utility rate increases, and $300 million in new property taxes); asks if they support or oppose the tunnel plan; says that both O'Brien and McGinn oppose the tunnel; and asks respondents, knowing this, who they'd vote for.

McGinn says that sharing the costs of such a poll, which he calls "message testing," is "very common when [the questions] will benefit both" candidates who are paying for the poll. "We're trying to test [the tunnel] message and figure out where we stand with the public," he says.

McGinn's most recent campaign finance reports, from the end of May, show that he spent $750 on polling. Nickels, in contrast, spent $25,000 on polling in the same campaign cycle.

Although McGinn says he heard Nickels was doing a similar "message testing poll" targeted at his opponents Joe Mallahan and Jan Drago, Nickels' spokesman Sandeep Kaushik says the campaign is not doing any such poll, "nor have we in the past."