Mountain West Fined $20k for Illegal Push Poll

In the US, Mountain West Research has been fined $20,000 for an illegal push polling project it conducted in July on behalf of Democrat politician Paul Hodes.

Voters who received telephone calls from the firm reported that the survey attacked Hodes' opponent Kelly Ayotte, and did not provide details of who had commissioned the survey.

During the call, participants were asked for a favourable or unfavourable reaction to four of the Republican candidates who were competing in the GOP US Senate primary, but Hodes' name was not mentioned.

The caller then asked for a first choice in the GOP Senate primary. If the answer was Ayotte, the voter was asked whether they would be more or less likely to vote for her if they knew she ignored or did not pursue the Financial Resources Mortgage scandal, and whether they knew she had no experience of creating jobs and economic development.

Hodes' campaign was subcontracted to Mountain West Research by Democratic polling and public opinion research firm Anzalone-Lisze Research, which billed $44,000 for the work.

New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney (pictured) said in a statement that Idaho-based Mountain West Research had 'violated' the region's push polling law.

'The company was clearly conducting illegal and unethical push poll calls on behalf of Congressman Paul Hodes and his campaign,' he continued.

Hodes has since confirmed that Mountain West is no longer a subcontractor for his campaign, adding: 'We expect all of our vendors to follow applicable New Hampshire laws and would fire any vendor from our campaign that does not. As we have previously said, all of our polling is only done for statistical market research purposes. Our campaign does not engage in push polling.'

This is the first time the state has imposed a civil or criminal penalty for violation of the push poll statute, which was enacted in 1998.

Web sites: www.mwrcenter.com and www.anzaloneresearch.com .