Babb critical of phone push poll

By Justin Post of The Montana Standard - 10/31/2008

The incumbent candidate for Butte-Silver Bow chief executive is calling foul on a recent telephone push poll to area residents.

Chief Executive Paul Babb said the poll doesn't include a disclaimer and includes false information about him.

"I've never heard of a push poll happening on a local level," he said. "It seems like a real underhanded way to sway voters right at the last minute." Butte resident Tracey Foley received a call from a pollster who said they were conducting an election survey, but didn't say who they were representing.

The caller then asked who she planned to vote for in the chief executive race, and raised several issues in response to her plan to vote for Babb, she said.

"The minute he was done with the third question (about Babb) he hung up on me," Foley said. "I just thought it was very odd." Those who have received the call say it links Babb to the Republican party, empty buildings in Butte, hardships at the Bert Mooney Airport and points to wrongful discharge settlements during his administration.

The chief executive race is nonpartisan, and Babb said he has not publicly supported or donated to any candidate in the presidential campaign or other elections.

He believes the attempt to link him to the Republican party is an effort to sway the vote in a primarily Democratic city.

"If you say someone is a Republican, they feel that will damage you," Babb said.

Babb's opponent, Clerk and Recorder Mary McMahon, said she has no knowledge of, and is not linked to the poll.

Dennis Unsworth, the state's commissioner for political practices, said he has discussed the issue with Babb, but that his office has been unable to identify who is behind the poll.

State law requires most efforts to influence an election to be registered and disclose funding sources and report how the cash is spent, he said.

Also, any "election communication" intended to influence an election is required to have a disclaimer identifying who is behind the effort, Unsworth said.

"The whole program is about disclosure and one of the basic premises is that anonymous campaigning is prohibited," he said.

Unsworth said his office often investigates formal complaints and that civil penalties can be levied and paid to the state's general fund.

The state's first complaint against telephone polling without a disclaimer was filed during the primary election in the attorney general's, he said. That case is pending.

Babb said he left a message with the Texas phone number that contacted local residents during the poll, but that he hasn't heard a response.

He hasn't decided whether he will file a formal complaint.

"I just need to get more information to decide what I'm going to do," Babb said.