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Push Pollers on the Prowl

Has anyone else gotten a push-poll call on behalf of Scott Brown tonight? Mine, which was not with a human, went something like this:
--Do you plan to vote? (Me: Yes!)
--Do you plan to vote for the Republican, Scott Brown? (No.)
--Do you plan to vote for the Democrat, Martha Coakley? (Yes.)
--Did you know that Martha Coakley strongly supports using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions nationwide? Knowing this, and knowing that Scott Brown, like you [that's a bit presumptuous, eh?], thinks [I tuned this part out], are you still planning to vote for the Democrat, Martha Coakley? (Um, yes.)

The call went on to ask another question about health care. I tried to see if I could talk to a real person, but it cut me off when I didn't say "yes" or "no."

The poll ad was "sponsored" by the Americans in Contact PAC, whose mission "is to identify social and fiscal conservatives throughout America and engage them at the Grassroots level in the political process of elections and legislation..." Their website says they've just endorsed Brown, who they say "will be the last vote needed to stop the government from taking over the health care system and stopping tax-payer funded abortions."

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Comments

Got one from Martha too. Must be acorn.

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There are NO automated systems doing calling for Brown.

I've volunteered in one of his call-centers, and they are ALL person-to-person, with no robot polls.

Brown has asked that these groups stop their campaigning on his behalf, and I've sent word
to a few of his campaign organizers, alerting them of this.

This is certainly NOT something connected to the official campaign.

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Well, a bot using Brown's voice just called Chris Devers:

I just got a Brown robocall poll, but not the same one. Mine had a pitch from Brown himself, seemed to be run by his campaign.

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As I said in the original post, this was well-identified as coming from a PAC, but clearly intended to draw support to Scott Brown. If what you say is true, then someone from Brown's campaign might want to give them a call and ask them to stop. They conveniently state their phone number at the end of the poll: 202-257-3721.

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Intellus says.

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I called Scott Brown's campaign headquarters in Needham, and they said there are only volunteers there tonight. When I asked to speak to a paid staffer they hung up on me. When I called back they hung up again. Third time - voicemail, so I left a message for his fiance department saying I am making a financial contribution to Martha (which I just did) because I was push polled for him.

Thanks for linking to the PAC - the number on my caller id is 202-461-3440 which is for Brothers Concrete in DC (I left a message for them too).

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As Adam says, I got a robocall tonight, and it seemed to be from the Brown campaign.

It came in shortly before I saw this post and I was trying to get the kids in bed, so I was only half-paying attention to what was said. What I do remember:

  • It was a recording of Scott Brown himself doing a standard-sounding stump speech last-minute pitch for his campaign.
  • The message at the end of the call said words to the effect of "paid for by the committee to elect Scott Brown" (e.g. it sounded "official" and "legit", and didn't arouse any suspicions that it was some shady right- or left- wing advocacy group, nor one of the independent pollsters like Rasmussen, Suffolk, UNH, etc)
  • The actual sales pitch wasn't anything remarkable, just the standard boilerplate stuff that any candidate of any party would have, stuff like "I pledge to fight for the people of Massachusetts, can I count on your support at the polls next Tuesday?" Nothing at all about abortion or any other hot-button issues was mentioned -- the text was innocuous enough that it could have been used verbatim by the Coakley or Kennedy campaign.
  • The questions asked were to the effect of: "Do you plan to vote?" [Y] "Can I count on your vote for the Brown campaign?" [N]

I don't have caller ID on the landline, so no idea what the inbound number was. Until this article appeared, I didn't think there was anything surprising or offensive about the call we got at our house tonight.

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He'll tell those f***ing kids to stop that sh*t.

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Well, then, we have push-pollers working both sides. I got one the other day that told me (in not so many words) that I shouldn't vote for Scott Brown because, you know, he's a NAZI! How's them ethics for ya?

My question for you, though, is why would anyone in their right mind vote for Coakley knowing that her policies would directly affect the amount of their own money they get to keep -- and not in a good way?

Coakley is just another stooge in the corrupt soviet we call Massachusetts. It's time for them to go.

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You think Brown is really going to help me keep my money? How exactly is he going to do this? Force utility companies to lower rates? Force landlords to lower rents? Force insurance companies to cut the cost of premiums, or perhaps mandate that all employers pay a greater percentage?
Or maybe you mean he's gonna lower taxes for people in my income bracket.
Nice- but how? Cut Defense spending? Close prisons? Shut down homeless shelters? Or what?
And all of this he'll do single-handedly, too...he must be quite a fellow.

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I suppose Scott Brown will lower taxes for the rich and claim it will trickle down to the rest of us middle class folk... gosh darn-it, ain't that swell!

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The only stuff that trickles down is warm and yellow.

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Seems a touch worse to me than what's described here. Some unknown group is doing push polling trying to connect Scott Brown to hate groups. See here and here.

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They say hate groups support him. That's a fact. Check Storm Front or any of those sites. Republicans said the same thing about Ron Paul in 2008. That was also true, the hate groups loved that guy.

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...and it is probably having the opposite effect that they are looking for. Mine also had a do you support the Teabagger's type question too.

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The next few questions from the Americans In Contact PAC call that I got were:

Do you consider yourself a tea party activist?
Do you consider yourself a Republican?
Do you consider yourself a Democrat?
Do you consider yourself an independent?

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... here.

Glad to see from others that it's not Brown's campaign. But perhaps the out-of-staters should keep their crap, well, out-of-state already?

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We got the robocall last night from Scott Brown (himself) - general political stumping, which I didn't pay attention to - ending with something like, "Can I count on your vote? press 1 for yes, 2 for no, and 3 for undecided." We moved out of state 19 months ago, so I don't know where they got the current phone number from. When we registered to vote here, we were told that info would be sent to our previous registrations to cancel them. (I was registered as a Democrat and my husband was registered as an undecided/independent, so it looks like at least he is still in the system somehow).

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I just emailed Scott Brown about this very issue:

Sen. Brown,

What a joke -- that “robocall” that I got last night, from the PAC that’s supporting you.

“Do you care that Martha Coakley wants to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions?!?

“Do support marriage between one man and one woman only???

Do you consider yourself a ‘teabag patriot’?!?!”

I wish their automated system could pick up my guffaws and my gasps of incredulity, amid each “No” response that I gave.

You are so wildly misreading the attitudes and convictions of voters in Massachusetts.

You’ve shown yourself in this campaign to be an opportunistic and shameless “empty suit”.

I will do everything I can, especially after this nasty phone call, to convince others to vote for Coakley.

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I also received a push poll call for Scott Brown tonight - verbatim the same topics (abortion, same sex marriage, etc.) that others have identified. I'm sending $$ to EMILY's list for Coakley after this disgusting experience.

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