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Mystery Group Robo-Calling For Huckabee
A curious new pro-Huckabee group is running some interesting phone calls in Iowa — and they're blurring the line between message-testing and outright push-polling. Jonathan Martin reports that the automated calls first ask respondents if they will participate in the Republican caucus, if they are pro-life and oppose gay marriage ... and then let the negatives fly against John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.
The calls then refer people to a Web site called Trust Huckabee, which says it is paid for by "Common Sense Issues." A search at Open Secrets found no listing for any group called "Common Sense Issues," and the only listings found at the Federal Elections Commission site show no disbursements on file yet.
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Once again, with the easily solved mystery.
TrustHuckabee.com is a Mike Connell/New Media Communications/Donatelli Group operation.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_Media_Communications%2C_Inc.
Next time do a WHOIS search.
December 3, 2007 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Odd. I did a google search of Connell and Donatelli and found several references to him signing on w/the McCain campaign.
December 3, 2007 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not odd at all ... just check out the Donatelli Group client list .. it's a who's who of Republican clients.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Donatelli_Group
December 3, 2007 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I got this call last night! I said I was going to the Dem caucus and was asked similar "If you knew that..." questions that framed Huck in a good light (Clinton said something nice about him, he improved education)
December 3, 2007 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
No line blurring here. These sound like pretty straight-up push poll calls, not message testing.
Also note from Martin's article the presence once again of the despicable political trickster Nathan Estruth. Boycott P&G! No Tide for Oil!
Groups called "Common Sense Ohio" and "Common Sense 2006" last year spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to attack Democrats in targeted Senate races using similar such automated calls as went into Iowa tonight, per the New York Times. These groups were led by executives at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, one of whom, Nathan Estruth, is now a Huckabee donor. But "Common Sense 2006" also received money from the RGA, which was led by Romney last cycle.
December 3, 2007 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't George Stephanopoulos ask Huckabee if he had been "talking" with Dick Morris?
I also read that Morris was affiliated with this group. Morris has been saying, and writing, some positive things about Huckabee. He would love to have an Arkansas
republican go head to head with his old client(s), makes for a great story.
December 4, 2007 2:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Once the light gets pointed on the Huckster because he's now the flavor of the day that cone is gonna melt. This guy is the loony fringe and if this is what the Repubs want to put as the face of their party well let it be.
December 4, 2007 6:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
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December 11, 2007 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink