June 13, 2006 08:00 AM UTC

CD-7 Polls Are a Figment of Your Imagination

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• by: Colorado Pols

Ed Perlmutter’s campaign for CD-7 is long past sounding ridiculous over their incessant cries about polling, but?now they are entering more dangerous territory: They’re starting to look silly and feeble. Perlmutter’s camp is?actively disputing the validity of the 9News/Survey USA poll released last week that showed fellow Democrat?Peggy Lamm with better name ID than Perlmutter. This comes after months of complaints about a Ridder/Braden poll (which we didn’t believe, either) and a Celinda Lake?poll that may or may not have existed (both of which also showed Lamm ahead).

Of course, the only thing they succeeded in doing by continually bringing up the subject of those previous?polls is to draw new attention to them – probably not the best idea given that there are plenty of people who had no idea they even existed. That’s like holding a press conference to refute allegations that you kicked your dog; most people didn’t even know you had been accused of kicking your dog, but now they do. And after the Perlmutter camp called up The Hill newspaper to refute any idea of previous polls, they now look like Dick Leggitt. From The Hill:

Although primary voters may pay little attention until July, candidates believe, poll standing is crucial to attracting money for when the campaign hits high gear next month. Danielle Radovich Piper, Perlmutter?s campaign manager, complained when The Hill reported during a Perlmutter fundraising trip to Washington that Lamm was considered the front-runner on the basis of two polls Perlmutter disputed…

…The new poll appears to support earlier polls that Perlmutter sought to discredit. In February, Ridder Braden Inc., a consulting and polling firm working for Lamm, found her with a 16-point lead. Perlmutter?s campaign suggested that the pollster manipulated the results.

Lamm?s campaign has circulated news of a survey by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked for Perlmutter, showing Lamm with a lead of nearly 30 points. The poll was part of a larger survey Lake conducted on the minimum wage, and only about 80 people gave their opinions about the candidates. Perlmutter said the sample size was far too small to be meaningful. His campaign also questioned reports of the polling results, which where posted on a local political blog, coloradopols.com. But Perlmutter?s opponents seized on a memo by Lake downplaying the results of the poll, though not disputing them, as evidence that reports of the poll were accurate.

Whoops! And remember, it was PERLMUTTER’S CAMPAIGN that sent out that Lake memo. They served that one up on a platter by insisting on talking about polls over and over. There was some question as to whether that Lake poll really existed, but not after Perlmutter’s campaign released that rambling memo.

Obviously it was folly to continually discuss those two previous polls, but it’s even more ridiculous to continue to beat that drum now that a?respectable news organization has done its own poll. It’s one thing to say a poll done by Lamm’s pollster is inaccurate; it’s quite another to pretend that a major news poll isn’t correct. That didn’t stop Perlmutter’s camp, of course. From The Hill newspaper:

Perlmutter?s campaign disputes Survey USA?s methodology, contending that the pollster did not identify Republican and Democratic affiliations or limit the survey to likely voters.

?There?s a lot of smoke and mirrors about whether Peggy Lamm is the front-runner,? said Alan Salazar, who is Rep. Mark Udall?s chief of staff and is serving as general chairman of Perlmutter?s campaign. Salazar said reports of polls showing the candidate?s name-identification rate are ?great for fundraising.?

?I think people who are here in Colorado read those stories and laugh at them,? he said.

Sorry, but the only thing people are laughing at are Perlmutter supporters running around with tinfoil hats saying that these polls don’t exist or aren’t valid. Seriously – enough is enough. It’s not working. Nobody believes you.

The problem now is that Perlmutter’s campaign has become completely reactionary and irrational, blaming problems on big conspiracies or?polls that aren’t any good. But if there are three polls that all?say roughly the same thing – that Lamm is the leader -?you can’t pretend that they aren’t valid anymore. Maybe the exact numbers aren’t accurate, but the message is the same.

If you were getting a sunburn, would you?yell at the sun? Maybe instead you’d put on some sunscreen and a hat.