Busted! GOP pollster Bob Moore caught lying (twice) to the Bend Bulletin
Kari Chisholm
On July 6, the Bend Bulletin's Keith Chu published a story (sorry, paywall) tracking the latest news in the U.S. Senate race between Senator Ron Wyden and law professor Jim Huffman. The story contained the sort of analysis one typically finds in these stories -- a quote from a political expert unaffiliated with either candidate:
Republican pollster Bob Moore, who hasn't polled for either candidate this race, made the same comparison between Huffman and Merkley in March, when Wyden led 49 percent to 35 percent. Based on Rasmussen's poll, that's still true this week, Moore said. “The poll numbers, at least, are similar” between Wyden-Huffman and Smith-Merkley, said Moore, who is based in Portland.
There was just one little problem. Moore was hardly unbiased or unconnected from the Huffman campaign. In fact, in February, the Huffman campaign had paid Moore's polling firm $2800 for some survey work.
So, four days later, the Bulletin issued a correction:
In the article 'For Wyden’s challenger, Merkley serves as a model,' which appeared Tuesday, July 6, on page A1, pollster Bob Moore’s relationship to Jim Huffman’s campaign was incorrect, due to incorrect information supplied to The Bulletin. Moore was paid $2,800 by the campaign in February, for including three to four questions on a longer questionnaire.
Of course, Moore's explanation -- that the $2800 payment was just for a few questions on someone else's survey -- is an attempt to imply that he wasn't actually engaged in a serious way as Huffman's pollster at the time he was interviewed in July.
There's just one little problem. As far as back as March 22nd, Moore told Wyden pollster Lisa Grove that he was working for Huffman. Today, the Wyden campaign released the email exchange. On the jump...
From: Lisa Grove
Sent: Mon 3/22/2010 2:15 PM
To: Bob Moore
Subject: RE: Are you polling for Huffman?Clearly, you're not, right?
Lisa Grove
Grove Insight, Ltd.From: Bob Moore
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 3:52 PM
To: Lisa Grove
Subject: RE: Are you polling for Huffman?Yes, I am. Are you polling for Ron?
Bob Moore
www.moore-info.com
So, when Bob Moore told the Bend Bulletin he wasn't polling for Jim Huffman, he actually was. And when they called him on it, he dissembled further. But his own words tell the truth. Ouch.
Moore's said to be one of the most well-respected Republican pollsters around. And yet, this isn't the first time he's been in hot water. In 2008, as we reported here at BlueOregon, he was subpoenaed by the attorney general of New Hampshire in an investigation of some alleged illegal push-polling.
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5:08 p.m.
Jul 15, '10
Full disclosure: My firm built Ron Wyden's campaign website. I speak only for myself.
(See, Bob, it's not that hard.)
12:21 a.m.
Jul 16, '10
Let's hope Bob never meets up with Research 2000's scam pollster who defrauded the Daily Kos by claiming he did polling but really didn't. It would be like matter and anti-matter coming together.
Wait, would that be a renewable energy source?
9:02 a.m.
Jul 16, '10
What I find ridiculous is that anyone would claim that Wyden-Hoffman is similar to Smith-Merkley. Even if you can claim that Huffman is an insurgent with popular support working against an incumbent with very thin popularity (not true for Wyden or Huffman)you have a first time politician who is almost totally unknown (Huffman) vs. a veteran politician who ran two state-wide campaigns (house Dems)successfully and was Speaker of the House. Not exactly the same.
9:36 a.m.
Jul 16, '10
Plus Huffman's a wingnut; the same could never be said of Gordon Smith.
12:03 p.m.
Jul 16, '10
Another indicator to me that political polling is not only not an inexact science, but it is further corrupted by the interests who pay for the polling and the agendas being carried out by the polling, down to the selection of polling questions.
7:39 a.m.
Jul 17, '10
The problem is that with the modern G.O.P. lying is a shrewd career move. The same is true in what passes for "conservatism".
On a daily basis, folks like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Lars Larson do things that would get most people fired from their jobs -- they make stuff up and pass it off as fact.