By Charlie Sykes CREATED Jul. 14, 2011
Media Trackers comes up with an actual dirty trick, courtesy of the AFL-CIO.
With less than a week before the Republican primary in Senate District 22 (Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie, Burlington), residents in the Kenosha area received an automatic phone survey polling them about issues of importance and who they might support in the August 16th recall election.
But “When the survey asked ‘who would you support in the August 16 election?’ It said ‘press 1 for Senator Robert Wirch, press 2 for Fred Ekornaas, and press 3 for undecided.’” The poll is omitting the other Republican candidate, former small-business owner and corporate attorney Jonathan Steitz.
So would a scientific poll really only list two of the three candidates?
So where did this call originate? The listed number from the call was 202-974-8147. When Media Trackers called the Washington D.C. phone number, we were greeted by this automatic message identifying who was behind the fake survey.
Listen To The Automatic Voice Message Here
That’s right, the AFL-CIO is calling residents in Senate District 22 with a fake poll that omits the name of the Republican front-runner in an effort to confuse voters. Steitz’s campaign manager Ashley Schultz told Media Trackers “it’s clear that Senator Wirch and his liberal allies are threatened by Steitz.” “Despite the unions efforts to deceive voters, we’re confident that the people of the 22nd District will get out and vote for Steitz in the primary on Tuesday,” said Schultz.
The deceptive survey from the AFL-CIO comes in the wake of allegations by liberal bloggers that Wisconsin Right To Life used automatic calls to confuse and suppress the vote.
