Friday, June 30, 2006

CD 8-- Weiss and PACs: Pot Calls Kettle Black

Everyone seems to be rumbling with political indigestion (or should that be indignation) over campaign finance issues. Apparently no one who accepts PAC money can be free of bondage to “special interests.”

This lets the Weiss campaign out since it is already tainted. It has accepted $5000 from the United Transportation Union Political Action Committee. Patty has also accepted two ‘in kind’ contributions from the National Committee For An Effective Congress valued at $3000.

The National Committee, in turn, is the recipient of funds from PACs like the American Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO, the International Association of Firefighters, and the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League. Hence the campaign sucks in what I suppose you might call the ‘second hand smoke’ of PAC contributions.

Oh, Patty…Patty…Patty

8 comments:

Art Jacobson said...

Dear Data Porters,

Just received this from the Latas Campaign, reporting a canvas by door and phone of 1692 'likely primary voters.'

"Of 1,692 likely primary voters canvassed at their doors or on the phone, a full 32% are supporting Jeff, 8% are supporting other candidates, and 59% are undecided."

Art

Art Jacobson said...

Fed Up...

Sorry, I don't know any more about the canvas than I reported. I'm on the Latas press list and the canvas was simply reported as I passed it on.

Art

Framer said...

It is entirely possible that Latas got those numbers. Obviously when sending people to walk, you would start with the neighborhoods most favorable to you. Also, I would bet that most of the people contacted on the phone were people that he had in the hopper already, possibly people that had already signed for him or were known to him in other ways. There is no way his sample was random. That would be a complete waste of his time and effort.

If that is the case, however, the high undecideds should be worrisome.

The thing that can be gleaned is that Latas is doing quite a bit of groundwork this early. I wonder if the oyher candidates have contacted this many people this early on.

x4mr said...

Not sure about your riddle, fedup, but I have been told (think I already posted this) that there is no way Graf will prevail.

Republicans will do whatever it takes to see that either Huffman (most likely) or Hellon will get the nod.

That information is about three weeks old, but came from really good source, and it came well before the Aiken thing.

Also, fedup, agree with your remarks regarding the Latas numbers. Not on this planet.

The Weiss poll, while a small sample, seems reasonable given no real advertising has started.

For what little it's worth, in March I ended up having to speak with a lot of people on another topic, but felt like asking about the race. It was about 60 people. Didn't take notes or anything, but almost everyone (all but just a few) had heard of BOTH Weiss and Giffords. Only like three or four had heard of Latas.

This was middle of Tucson in March.

One item that some might find interesting. A LOT of those that knew Giffords did because of the tire company. Apparently her grandfather used to run these bizarre, long tv spots. People still talk about them when you bring up the name, and apparently she went on tv as well to sell tires.

x4mr said...

dogma,

Drink a little more coffee, and I've done this myself, so no criticism here, but you've pulled a Rozanne Rozannadanna.

It's a language thing.

Anon used a double negative. Gabby is less UNKNOWN. Gabby is less UNPROVEN. He is in fact saying what you are saying.

Of course she is more known than Jeff.

Art Jacobson said...

Dogma...

Thanks for your defense of Giffords.
Ol' Anonymouse can be very annoying at times and make good sense at others. I think the "psychopathic side" reference is over the edge.

Probably no harm done but let's remember that when all this primary play is over we'll have to work together.

'gards,
ART

Liza said...

Giffords Fans Giffords Fans Giffords Fans
Interesting discussion about the Latas canvass numbers. These are on his website and were also sent in email to supporters. I see no evidence that he ever referred to this as a “poll” which would imply that statistical methods were used. Political groups and campaigns do this all the time to get a handle on how the electorate, or a segment of the electorate, is leaning. Not everyone can afford a professional pollster every time that they are trying to figure out how best to employ limited resources.

So, for crying out loud, give it a rest. Latas obviously posted his canvass results, VERY OBVIOUSLY DERIVED FROM AN INFORMAL INFORMATION GATHERING PROCESS, to encourage his supporters. I don’t see the reason for some of the ridicule here. Its his website, I suppose he can use it communicate with supporters, don't you think?

Liza said...

Outlander,
I've heard that "soul searching" comment made from two different perspectives. One is that Jeff and Alex should drop out and allow Weiss to win. Or, Jeff and Alex should drop out and allow Giffords to win. Apparently, we now have mathematics and objective truth to support the first.

The part of this that I find most interesting is the "soul searching." Someone can search their soul and come to a completely different conclusion than you. So, are some conclusions better than others? I still remember "democracy" and I hope that it still means something in twenty years.

Another thing, the Democratic Party is going to fight for CD8, make no mistake about it. There will be support for whoever wins the primary.

So, I encourage all voters to "search your soul" and vote for the candidate who best exemplifies your beliefs and convictions.