A Fitting Epitaph to a Fraudulent Campaign (Source of Smith Campaign “Poll from Nowhere” Refuted)
Welcome to Right Angle Blog readers! — Also see election-related post collections on Bill Pierce, David Smith, and the Second Congressional District (Schmidt-McEwen).
______________________
On Friday of last week (April 28), I forwarded the e-mail that one of David Smith’s backers had been circulating — the one touting the “National Republican Senatorial Committee” poll showing Ohio’s US GOP Senate primary race as running 41 - 29 - 10 DeWine-Smith-Pierce to David Kotman at the (you guessed it) National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). Mr. Smith, recall, also was touting this poll on a hush-hush basis to selected influential supporters.
Mr. Kotman said that he would forward the e-mail to those who might have been involved in any polling. For the record, the tainted final result (see below and this previous post for the identification of the various taints) was 71.8 - 14.5 - 13.7 DeWine-Smith-Pierce.
Having received no response before the election, I called Mr. Kotman on Thursday, because I had expected a response much sooner. He said he was sorry that no one had gotten back to me, but relayed that he had been told that the NRSC had not polled the Ohio race.
I asked if I could quote him on that. He said that he wasn’t in a sufficient position of authority to be able to allow that.
I asked to speak to someone who could. Mr. Kotman asked, since the election was over, why it was so important. I responded that if a candidate was making a false claim and using the NRSC as its supposed source, that I cared, and that the NRSC, whose name is being thrown around without authorization, should also care (I can be such a pain). Mr. Kotman referred me to NRSC Press Secretary Brian Nick.
After two unanswered voice mails, I called the NRSC just before 1 PM today, and was fortunate enough to be able to catch Mr. Nick at his desk just before he said he was leaving for a meeting (just in the nick of time, so to speak).
He told me that the NRSC had not polled the Ohio primary, and that I could quote him on that.
There.
Another Smith campaign claim, one that certainly influenced thousands of voters, bites the dust (I am so NOT surprised).
Perhaps David Smith was played as well, if someone supplied him the bogus info and passed it off as inside stuff from the NRSC. If so, I don’t care, because the result, deceived voters, is the same. A responsible candidate would have demanded the details, and wouldn’t have used unsupported information, no matter how good it looked, just as Bill Pierce and his suppporters stayed away from and did nothing with an earlier “poll from nowhere” that showed him with 26%.
Anyone who wishes to confirm what the NRSC said can call 202-675-6000. Anyone who wishes to tell me I’m wrong will have to have Brian Nick call me himself so he can tell me he was mistaken.
