The DPA Hits Back Hard On Tolbert’s Fayetteville Poll

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Mar 30, 2011 No Comments ›› ARDem

You know, the more I see from her, the more I absolutely love the fact that Candace Martin is the DPA’s new communications director.  Seriously, check her press release from today:

Poll Pushes Ideology, Fails To Ask The Real Questions

A poll by Republican pollster Diamond State Consulting, paid for by the rightwing blog “Tolbert Report” was released yesterday and as expected supported the conclusion its sponsor had already decided.  What was shocking was the blatant omission of the most important questions.
“That this farce of a poll is absent of so many crucial questions proves it was clearly designed as a push poll and of course produced the so-called ‘conclusions’ that were already paid for,” Democratic Party of Arkansas Spokesperson Candace Martin said.  “Change is never easy, but change is mandated by law. So where was that explanation in the survey?  Of course it wasn’t there because the people paying for the poll already had in mind what they wanted it to conclude. Why bother with the cumbersome facts?
“Of equal absurdity, the pollsters and their sponsors must have thought nobody reading this disinformation would think to note the absence of testing any other solutions.  Because of the huge population growth in Northwest Arkansas, it is mandated to shed population in Congressional redistricting to ensure one person, one vote.  Likewise, South Arkansas has lost population so more must be added.
Where is the rest of the data?  How many people from Fort Smith, Rogers, Springdale and Bentonville volunteered to make the transition mandated by law so Fayetteville wouldn’t have to?  I guess that was omitted since it would highlight the false premise of the sponsors’ argument.”
The survey instrument, available for review online, shows the only question asked regarding redistricting options was, “Would you prefer that Fayetteville remain in  a  congressional  district  with Bentonville, Rogers  and Fort  Smith  or  move  to  a  congressional  district  with  Hot  Springs,  Pine  Bluff  and  Texarkana?    If you  would   prefer  that  Fayetteville  remain  in  a  congressional  district  with  Bentonville,  Rogers  and  Fort  Smith,  press   1.    If  you  would  prefer  that  Fayetteville  move  to  a  congressional  district  with  Hot  Springs,  Pine  Bluff  and   Texarkana,  press  2.    If  you  are  unsure  as  to  which  district  Fayetteville  should  be  in,  press 3.”
It’s nice to see the Democratic Party messaging on this sort of thing.  For the longest time the only folks out there countering this sort of thing were those of us in the blogosphere and a small handful of pundits.  Candace though has been a one woman war machine since she took the reigns, and it doesn’t hurt that she swings a punch like Lennox Lewis.  Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come.
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