Fake surveys seek voter data for Blackwell (in race for Ohio governor)

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1135330635119561.xml&coll=2

Recordings carry criticisms of Petro

Friday, December 23, 2005

Columbus - Calls seemingly packed with poll questions about Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's run for governor and his tax-limit plan are being used to collect information on Ohio voters who might cast a ballot for Blackwell or give him money.

The automated calls are amassing the voter information while sometimes spreading negative messages about Blackwell's leading Republican rival, Attorney General Jim Petro, in a practice called "push polling."

A recent spate of calls made no mention of Blackwell, but did include questions peppered with references to Petro's "horrible track record," his alleged fund-raising ties to "favored GOP whipping-boy Bill Clinton" and his being "part of the problem in Columbus."

What the calls are not doing, concedes Blackwell spokesman Gene Pierce, is measuring anything...



More dirty Ohio politics- "opposition research" -

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2005-12-21/news/firstpunch.html

The scum always rises

In politics, it's called "opposition research," a polite phrase for digging up anything you can to smear your opponent. Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz never knew how slimy it could be until she married Congressman Sherrod Brown.

Schultz recently moved from Shaker Heights to Avon so that the couple could live in hubby's congressional district. Then Brown announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Strange things began to happen.

Schultz looked out the window one day to see two men in suits and a white van taking away her garbage. "I just thought they had upscale garbage pickup," she jokes of her new hometown. But when she confronted the well-dressed sanitation workers, they quickly fled.

Then she noticed a guy taking pictures of her house. The man said he was an appraiser. When she asked for identification, he bolted too