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August 5, 2008

Barletta campaign rips poll tactics

GOP’s rep: “Push poll” unfair. Kanjo’s rep: No involvement.

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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HAZLETON – The Lou Barletta campaign is upset about a poll it says cast the Hazleton mayor in a negative light, but U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski’s spokesman denied any involvement with the survey.

A Hazleton man said he received a call from a pollster who raised issues such as Barletta’s business dealings and the Hazleton police department.

Barletta’s campaign called it a “push poll,” a survey that is designed to shape public opinion. The push poll is usually conducted under the mask of opinion polling but often passes on information about a candidate or issue in an attempt to plant an idea in the minds of those being surveyed.

Barletta is challenging 12-term congressman Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, in the heated 11th District U.S. House race.

Lenny Gibson Jr. said the caller discussed some issues before asking whom he would vote for. Gibson said it seemed like “dirty politics.”

According to Gibson, the caller offered information about Barletta selling his business to a convicted drug felon and cutting the Hazleton police force.

“They asked how I felt about the mayor cutting back police while blood rolled down the gutters of Hazleton,” Gibson said.

Barletta said he received calls from several about the survey.

On Monday, Barletta campaign manager Vince Galko sent a letter asking the Kanjorski campaign to “stop using despicable negative calls and to stop having a cameraman follow Mayor Barletta and his campaign volunteers and harass them.”

Kanjorski campaign spokesman Ed Mitchell said his camp does not do push polls. The Kanjorski campaign has “no problem” with negative phone calls and campaign tactics from the Barletta camp, he said.

“Politics ain’t beanbag,” Mitchell said. “But Lou Barletta could at least act like a man and stop crying, whining and complaining every time someone calls him on his record.”

The Barletta campaign claims the poll was conducted last week by Sun Surveys, a South Florida-based company. George Valdez of Sun Surveys was unavailable for comment Monday.

The president of Sun Surveys is Wade Perry, who worked for Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, the company that conducted the first Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee survey for Kanjorski in March, according to Galko.

“They really didn’t want my responses, they just wanted to know who I would vote for after hearing what they had to say,” Gibson said.

“I kept telling them I would vote for Barletta.”

Gibson said the caller made a few negative comments about Kanjorski, but offered explanations about issues like Cornerstone Technologies, a research company that received more than $9 million in federal grants and contracts. The company was operated by Kanjorski’s daughter and four of his nephews.

“They asked how I felt about the mayor cutting back police while blood rolled down the gutters of Hazleton.”

Lenny Gibson Jr.

Hazleton resident

Bill O’Boyle, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7218.

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