Repost from the Vallejo Times-Herald
[Editor: Vice Mayor Steve Young and many others who received the call have been perfectly clear about the smear tactics of the “push poll” callers who have spread misinformation and lies about candidate Kari Birdseye. Kari’s opponents have publicly raised questions about whether there even was a bias (see Largaespada’s and Strawbridge’s highlighted comments below). For a detailed and accurate description of the blatant bias, see Steve Young: Benicia voters should be wary of fake polls. Kudos to City Attorney Heather McLaughlin for looking into this. Learn the truth about Kari Birdseye at BirdseyeForBenicia.com. – R.S.]
Benicia officials looking into push poll incident
By John Glidden, October 1, 2018 at 7:01 pm
BENICIA — City Attorney Heather McLaughlin has launched an investigation into whether the city’s campaign ordinances were violated after several residents reported receiving a survey call about the current Benicia City Council candidates.
McLaughlin confirmed last week that she will be meeting with the City Council in closed session on Tuesday about possibility initiating litigation in response to the calls.
The calls came to light after Vice Mayor Steve Young wrote a letter, first posted on the Benicia Independent website, stating he received one of the calls from Research America, Inc, a data collection company which has multiple branches throughout the United States.
Young said the call originated from a Saratoga phone number, and the pollster said she would be asking questions about the City Council, senatorial and gubernatorial contests. However, Young alleges that only questions about the council were asked.
He further said that the person asked a few questions about Christina Strawbridge, and none about William Emes, however, “there were lots of questions about Lionel Largaespada and Kari Birdseye.”
“The statements about Mr. Largaespada were uniformly positive and stated how, for example, he would use his small business background to improve the City’s economy and relations with its businesses,” Young wrote. “The statements about Ms. Birdseye were the opposite. Among these statements were ‘She wants to shut down Valero, costing hundreds of jobs,’ and ‘She will bring radical left-wing politics to City Hall.’”
Young said the call was a push poll. Such polls are meant to sway public opinion instead of recording objective information from those surveyed.
Reached by phone Monday, a Research America employee, who declined to give his name, said the company was paid to “collect data as an opinion poll only.”
He also denied the poll was meant to sway voters. However, the employee confirmed EMC Research paid for the poll. A representative of the company couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday.
McLaughlin said her investigation centers on whether the pollsters disclosed who paid for the campaign poll.
“It is a little hard to say what section (the polls) are violating since we don’t know enough about the poll,” she wrote in an email, first reported by the Benicia Herald. “If the poll is paid for by a candidate there are rules for that. If it is paid for by an independent committee there are rules for that. All of it basically boils down to disclosure. They should be disclosing who is behind the poll.”
In a letter posted online, Largaespada said he had “no involvement whatsoever with this poll.”
“I do not know who is conducting it, and it was done with no input or permission from me,” he wrote. “ I have heard from many residents about the poll, and I have heard many different opinions on how it was conducted – ranging from Steve’s claim that it is biased towards me, to residents who found it equally balanced, to others who thought it was negative-sounding towards me. As with most topics, people have differing reactions and take always based on their own beliefs and opinions. ”
Largaespada said he is against push polling as it doesn’t benefit anyone.
A blog post on Birdseye’s campaign page, “When they go low, we go high,” said the campaign had nothing to do with the poll.
“However, the telephone pollster offered lies about me and flattering comments about one of the other candidates,” she wrote.
Birdseye followed up by responding to Largaespada’s comments about the poll.
“The favored candidate has publicly denied involvement. I believe him, but then he claims that the poll wasn’t necessarily biased,” she wrote. “He suggests that people hear what they want to hear. But many Benicians have reported that the push poll is an obvious attempt to smear my good name.”
Strawbridge also said she does not favor push polling.
“It has no place in our town’s election process. That said, during most of the elections I have participated in, there has been influence coming from both outside and inside Benicia. At times the facts have not always been true for or against a candidate,” Strawbridge wrote in an email to the Times-Herald on Monday. “Since I was not surveyed and there have been conflicting reports about the content of the questions , more information is needed as to the who and the what of the poll.”
She further said forums are a great way to find out where candidates stand on important issues.
Financial records submitted by the three campaigns last week to the Benicia City Clerk’s Office show that none hired EMC or Research America to conduct the poll.
If you are on the Benicia Independent email list, I can pretty much be sure that your alarm bells – like mine – are going off. A sampling…
Making democracy work means holding on to our principles, having clarity about our principles, and then having the confidence to get in the arena and have a serious debate. And it also means appreciating that progress does not happen all at once, but when you put your shoulder to the wheel, if you’re willing to fight for it, things do get better….Better is good.
outcome. But those who could, opted for public outrage, with signs and shouting. A few incredibly brave ones went public with their stories, and two made history confronting a Republican Senator in an elevator booth. The combined efforts of all these activists stopped the elevator ride for Brett Kavanaugh – at least for a week. Definitely NOT perfect… but BETTER.
Open Government Commission will hold a last-minute public hearing on November 3rd, giving candidates a chance to defend against hit pieces and misinformation. It’s good that there are a number of public hearings in our small town where we can go listen to and ask questions of the candidates themselves. See the schedule of forums at 
Here in Benicia, there are excellent substantiated reasons why NOT to vote for City Council candidate Lionel Largaespada. His registration as a Republican aside, he stood with Valero and Texas executives and attorneys in favor of dangerous and dirty oil trains cutting over the mountains and through California to Benicia. He was paid to help defeat a 2012 California tobacco tax initiative that would have funded cancer research. His friendly outreach and community service is notable, but he is undeniably a supporter of big business, and has demonstrated that he was impervious to community activist’s efforts to educate and organize for environmental health and the safety of the community. Let’s cast our votes and hope that the Council can proceed without that kind of drag on a bright future for our beloved city.
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