Report: Bob Schillerstrom Using Push Polls
Bob Schillerstrom (photo:huffingtonpost)
The McHenry County Blog is reporting on a situation we’ve been hearing about for some time now. It seems that gubernatorial candidate Bob Schillerstrom is using controversial push polls to measure support among known Republican voters in northern Illinois.
Push polling can be very helpful tactic to any campaign. By calling voters on the phone and asking if they would be likely to support several platforms, a campaign can be informed of what issues that voter may support and how enthusiastic that support may be. The push poll continues when the callers use that info to re-phrase the questions in a way that suggests a particular candidate is supportive or not supportive of the issues important to the respondent. Hence, a campaign can use a single push poll call to 1) learn voter preferences, 2) paint their candidate as supportive of those preferences, 3) inform the caller that other candidates are not supportive of those preferences.
The information gleaned from these calls can be used to further brand candidates, either positive or negative, and can inform the eventual GOTV list on election day.
Most Republicans in Northern Illinois have already been subject to Schillerstrom’s surveys this summer. But just in recent weeks its been learned that Schillerstrom has been dropping calls into Wheaton and other Republican heavy neighborhoods that questioned whether respondents were aware of several transportation related tax increases St. Senators such as Kirk Dillard voted for.
As voters tire of answering countless polls, push polling adds a deceptive element likely to earn backlash not only among Republican voters unwilling to go along with measures that may screw up what they see as the best opportunity in perhaps a generation, but among causal Republicans not normally responsive to such negative tactics. Schillerstrom’s call list better be well informed or he is going to have some explaining to do.
