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McGinn Paying for Viaduct Robopoll
[caption id="attachment_8417" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Photo by Flickr user Slightlynorth"]
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Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, who has made the deep-bore tunnel proposed to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct his primary campaign issue, confirmed that his campaign is behind a poll that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Seattle residents have been asked to respond to over the last few days.
The poll, conducted over the phone by a computerized polling system, does not mention any candidates for mayor, nor does it identify McGinn as the candidate behind the poll. It asks a series of questions (all questions are paraphrased):
The city has proposed a deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, at a cost of $4.5 billion, by 2016. Do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
A law enacted earlier this year makes Seattle taxpayers responsible for cost overruns. Mayor Greg Nickels says that law is unenforceable and the state will be responsible for overruns. Knowing that, do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
City taxpayers will pay $930 million for the initial cost of the tunnel, plus overruns. The finance plan has not yet been released, but it is expected that the tunnel will be financed by increases in electrical, water, sewer and garbage rates and property tax increases. Knowing that, do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
The tunnel plan has no on-ramps or off-ramps downtown. Sixty-five percent of current Alaskan Way Viaduct traffic starts or ends up downtown, so it will only serve 40 percent of the existing viaduct traffic. Knowing that, do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
The poll then asks the respondent's gender.
Representatives from other mayoral campaigns have alleged that the call constitutes a "push poll," a poll that attempts to push a particular message and sway respondents' opinions under the guise of conducting a legitimate poll. Candidates who do push polls generally don't actually collect or use the data.
Actual push polls are fairly uncommon in Seattle races, in part because they're of limited use: They only reveal how well voters respond to one side of any political question. By that definition, McGinn's poll would seem to qualify as a push poll.
McGinn wouldn't comment on the poll, saying only that he "wanted to decide how much I want to say about the poll," and following up with an email that said simply, "Yes, we are polling."
I've got a call in to Bill Broadhead, a pollster and consultant who's done work for McGinn, to find out whether he did the poll, and if so, how much McGinn paid for it much, as well as whether Broadhead agrees with the claim that it constitutes a push poll.
[/caption]Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, who has made the deep-bore tunnel proposed to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct his primary campaign issue, confirmed that his campaign is behind a poll that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Seattle residents have been asked to respond to over the last few days.
The poll, conducted over the phone by a computerized polling system, does not mention any candidates for mayor, nor does it identify McGinn as the candidate behind the poll. It asks a series of questions (all questions are paraphrased):
The city has proposed a deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, at a cost of $4.5 billion, by 2016. Do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
A law enacted earlier this year makes Seattle taxpayers responsible for cost overruns. Mayor Greg Nickels says that law is unenforceable and the state will be responsible for overruns. Knowing that, do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
City taxpayers will pay $930 million for the initial cost of the tunnel, plus overruns. The finance plan has not yet been released, but it is expected that the tunnel will be financed by increases in electrical, water, sewer and garbage rates and property tax increases. Knowing that, do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
The tunnel plan has no on-ramps or off-ramps downtown. Sixty-five percent of current Alaskan Way Viaduct traffic starts or ends up downtown, so it will only serve 40 percent of the existing viaduct traffic. Knowing that, do you support the tunnel, or oppose it, or are you undecided?
The poll then asks the respondent's gender.
Representatives from other mayoral campaigns have alleged that the call constitutes a "push poll," a poll that attempts to push a particular message and sway respondents' opinions under the guise of conducting a legitimate poll. Candidates who do push polls generally don't actually collect or use the data.
Actual push polls are fairly uncommon in Seattle races, in part because they're of limited use: They only reveal how well voters respond to one side of any political question. By that definition, McGinn's poll would seem to qualify as a push poll.
McGinn wouldn't comment on the poll, saying only that he "wanted to decide how much I want to say about the poll," and following up with an email that said simply, "Yes, we are polling."
I've got a call in to Bill Broadhead, a pollster and consultant who's done work for McGinn, to find out whether he did the poll, and if so, how much McGinn paid for it much, as well as whether Broadhead agrees with the claim that it constitutes a push poll.
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