The big news this morning is that the democrats are eating crow. Yes, after all the caterwauling about Republican complaints over a push-poll conducted for the Hodes campaign–which they were unwilling to admit they commissioned, or that it was even a push poll–has resulted in a fine of $20,000.00 against the firm that conducted the poll, and an admission by the Hodes campaign that they did pay the company to conduct the poll for which they were fined.
The Union leader reports that Mountain West Research has agreed to pay a $20,000.00 fine for violating New Hampshire state law by conducting a push-poll against Kelly Ayotte.
The ambassadors from Hodesistan have admitted to paying to have the poll done but still refuse to acknowledge that it was in fact, a push poll. Sounds like bitter clinging to me.
It was a push poll. So did you know it was a push poll? Of course you did.
While I must confess that I’m not up to speed on the inside deal making that goes on when one of these things is commissioned, I think we can follow the bread crumbs on this one.
When a polling firm accepts the terms of the polling requested it is quite likely that it a) knows the laws of the state and knows it could be breaking them by doing the poll it is being paid for and b) accounts for how much extra the campaign will have to pay up front to get that kind of polling done knowing it may be in violation of state law and result in large fines.
We have to assume the polling firm works on the free market principle of profit and risk, so the Hodes ‘Bail out’ would have been built into the asking price for the service.
Camp Hodes disagrees with the NH AG on the illegality of the polling, so by sticking to their story it’s safe to say they stand behind the poll itself which means…how do I phrase this…."they approved this message."
So maybe lawyer Hodes didn’t read the push polling rules either? Or maybe he left it to the "experts" seeing as he’s just there to rubber stamp stuff–you know, just like in congress.
Bottom line? Hodes knew it was a push poll, paid the ‘bonus’ to the ‘vendor’ to get it done, and took the risk that he might get nabbed for it. Now he’s guilty of paying for a push poll and has tossed them under the bus the same way he tossed his voters under the bus after he got elected to the House. And he want’s to be a US Senator.
That’s not happening.
