Thursday, October 09, 2014

Who's in the field?

I got a robocall poll this evening. Which was funny because at the moment I got the call I was attending a Jack Hatch event (more on that next post). I'm fairly certain it was a legit poll poll. There were no "push" questions (Would you be more or less likely to vote for Bruce Braley if you knew he ate kittens for breakfast?)

The call came from my own 319 area code, an MCI line that looks to be from Cedar Rapids. It asked about the Senate and Governor races. I'm a cell-only person and I don't get a lot of telemarketing calls, but my number is listed on my voter record so I assume they were using some sort of voter data.

First question was how likely I was to vote, and "already" was included under very likely. If it had been a campaign rather than a real poll, "already" would have been its own choice and would have ended things. And since I voted almost two weeks ago, the campaigns probably already have me off the lists for mere mortal GOTV calls. (Though I still get the fundraising calls...)

Next up was my opinion of Bruce Braley (very/somewhat un/favorable) followed by same questions for Ernst. Then I was asked who I would be most likely to vote for - and interestingly the question included all six candidates.

After "voting" for Braley I was asked whether I has followed much media coverage of Braley, and how that affected my opinion of him, followed by same for Ernst. (I may be mixing the order up. A good poll rotates.)

The whole sequence repeated for the governor's race. I maneuvered myself next to Hatch in the hope that a live operator would come on and I could say "Hey, Jack, is my opinion of you favorable or unfavorable?" then hand him the phone. But I had to settle for the fun of pressing my 2 for Hatch while standing next to him. (After the call we chatted about it and he said "that's not ours.") Again, the third party candidates were all included.

I was wondering if the 2nd District race would come next, but instead we moved into demographics.  Gender age and income were included, as well as residence (larger city/suburb/small town/rural/"on a farm") party ID (Dem/GOP/Independent with no other options) and ideology *very/somewhat liberal/conservative). Race was not asked.

The more interesting demographic questions made me think this was more about Senate than Governor: gun ownership (no), union membership (yes) and choice (most pro of the four options offered).

I'm inclined to think the Register is not involved because they normally lead with a screen-out question about whether or not you work for an elected official (I lied and said no because I felt like that was an unfair reason to be excluded, and I didn't necessarily vote with my former boss. Or even for him.) I also doubt it's the Gazette because they'd be likely to include the congressional race.

My guess is it's a national firm that's acquired a local number for this purpose. Will be watching for results. Anyone else got a similar tale?

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