Evidence is mounting against Harris

Earlier today I brought you the story of a mysterious poll that went out on Wednesday.  As I told you earlier, my source was an elderly lady, who while extraordinarily lucid for her age was still almost ninety years old.  I gave you that information so you could fairly judge the details and source yourselves without me identifying them.  Some details about questions asked or other tone inferred were tough to get, but she was positive that the caller had claimed to be from the Virginia Democratic Party.

As we all agreed earlier, the Virginia Democratic Party would not do such a poll during a primary.  Thus a potential scandal was born, calls being made that misidentify themselves.  We wanted to know who was responsible!

To hear about one call means thousands others were attempted, so I put up a story hoping to get more details.  We hit the jackpot.  A blogger from Pittsburgh, PA named DJHlights has a friend on the Fairfax County Democratic Committee who also received the call!  Details are posted here.

As is usual with growing scandals, we learned new and even more troubling details.  On this call, the pollster identified themselves as with "Pew Research" a well respected name.  I can not find a similar public attack poll that Pew has ever conducted.  That combined with my source saying their caller said they were from the "Virginia Democratic Party" now leads us to a numbing conclusion.  Since neither Pew of the DPVA would be involved in such a poll, we can only conclude that the pollster was intentionally misleading people as to the source of the poll.

With this mounting evidence, it is time to discover who was responsible for this action that seems to be a clear violation of Virginia's disclosure laws. 

As we said earlier, it is highly unlikely James Webb was involved because the questions were skewed against his candidacy.  The Webb campaign later confirmed on the record that they are not polling.

That leaves Harris Miller, who has the money and the motive to be polling.  That campaign has refused to return emails from me asking if they are polling.  It's certainly their right to do so, but this issue will not go away.  The people of Virginia were lied to and mislead in this poll, and we need three questions answered.

1)  Was Harris Miller responsible for commissioning this poll?

2)  If so, did the Miller campaign ask the polling company to mislead those called on who commissioned the poll?

3)  If the Miller campaign commissioned this poll, but did not ask the callers to misidentify themselves- who at the polling company told them to do so?

Any more silence from the Miller campaign can only be interpreted as pleading the 5th as far as I'm concerned.  This is a very serious issue.

Comments

[Alicia]

April Fools?

[Dannyboy]

Posted on March 31st. If it is April Fools, he's breaking the rules... :)

[Alicia]

Was just a little hopeful that things would stay positive (and legal)

[Dude, you are so busted!]

Harris Miller, have you any other explanation than your pants are around your ankles at this point? Please hand us the Vaseline, sir, we're ready.

[George Templeton]

Why would Miller be so desperate so early, there is still a lot of time and there isn't any reason to believe he's that far behind Webb. For his sake I hope it isn't the case or the Webb-Allen battle can start now.

[Too Moderate]

James Webb is really a Republican. Harris doesn't want to be that guy who lost. He would never have believed that so many party faithfuls would ditch a guy who worked for the party to follow a Republican.

[lenny]

Ben, do us a favor - Confirm directly from Pew and the DPVA that they weren't involved. Don't assume anything. I don't like casting aspersions.

But if the Miller campaign indeed did this, its a shame, and they have some explaining to do.

[Moderate?]

So Miller's in line with you, Mederate? Last time I chacked, Webb was for protecting American jobs, while Miller was for outsourcing them? You think that's fucknig conservative? You Northern Virginia folks don't know what plays with us real Virginians who woro two jobs to feed our kids. Not you fuckin yuppies lobbyists in Dc and NOVa.

[Moderete]

I'm not going to hav eyou shits. I want someone who is going to stand up for my job and the future of my children. And it's not somebody whos going top send all the jobs to India. You think that's going tp get us all though the next century in Appalachia? Yeah, go smoke that dope from your No Va days. It's not going to work down here in real fuckin Viringia.\

[Too Conservative]

Has this been confirmed?

[lenny]

Hmm, I re-read the whole post including the second confirmation from the PA blogger. All I can say is that this poll is coming from Allen or Miller. I highly doubt Allen is up to this, but I could be wrong.

The Miller camp owes it upon themselves to respond.

[Moderate]

Damn straight. Where do the candidates stand on good jobs for our communities. That's all we really want to know. If Miller really is fo routsourcing them all to India and China, then I don't know what amkes him any more Virginian than any New Yorker?

Shit

[Veteran Dem]

Now, Ben, you're doing it again. Big headline, weak thesis, and lots of hyperbole. Passion is not a substitute for credibility.

The only "evidence" you posit to support your position is that Miller has, in your opinion, money and his folks have yet to return your email on a Friday night. And your point is? The only "evidence" that is "mounting against Harris," then, is that your emails STILL haven't been answered as of this ungodly hour.

Is that fair? Are you opening yourself for a definitive slap-back? Have you considered the tactics of the Wad? What if you could peg him?

In 1973, the Post's investigation into the Watergate break-in almost fell apart over one bad, poorly documented and speculative story by W&B that was proven false. I was a young staffer at the time for a member of the Senate Select Committee on Campaign Acivities (the "Watergate Committee"). There were several days when we felt the life of the issue oozing away.

Don't overplay your hand. If it was Miller, AND the facts are checked, you'll know soon enough and have a good story. If not, you're dining on crow.

Three moves deep.

Look for the source that is least mentioned.

I do admire your tenacity.

[Moderate]

Why are you any more than a damn Miller shill? Us real people have been fighting outsourcing in Av for a long time, and then our logtime enemy comes along and claims us a friend. We're not going to be fooled. Fool me once shame on you (Iraq), fool me twice shame on me(Iran).

Shit.

No fucking godddamn revolutions. We'rte ready, and we won't stop at the fickin Sheetz Mart, we're going to take on the whole thing.

[Dannyboy]

Look, the Miller Campaign just needs to respond. When it does, the wild speculation can end, and we can all settle on what the truth is.

[Moderate]

Th e Miller campaign needs to let us donwsteate folks know if we're part of the parety, or part of the banquet (bing eaten). That's all. We know we're screwed, but having No VA politicians against us is insulting. Take us liek you mean to kill us, not phoney baloney bullshit.

[Dannyboy]

Okay...Moderate appears to be hitting the sauce tonight...just kidding, dude.

But a good point has been made. We know the DPVA has been ruled out. How about Pew? Can somebody check there?

Right now, I get the feeling that this something paid for by either Allen or Miller.

[Veteran Dem]

Dannyboy -- It would be interesting to double check, but I don't think Pew is for hire. Indepedent and endowed. I think you can rule out Pew.

[Dannyboy]

I know that they are independent, Veteran Dem (almost called you VD...but...you know). I just want to make sure we can count out all non-candidate sources we've heard of through this thing(DPVA and Pew). Once their gone, we can narrow it down to Allen or Miller. And sad to say, I don't think Allen is scared enough yet to the point that he would do this.

[Veteran Dem]

Dannyboy -- You may be correct. But the devil is in the details. There are many loose ends on this whole story that would not likely survive cross examination at this point. I, for one, am hopeful that if a knot can, in clear fact, be tied -- we hear a Repub squeal. It's so much more satisfying. Good night.

[Moderate?]

Miller campaign, ya wanna deny this, or do wannt let know know that you support outsourcing our jobs. Thanks. Shits, We all knew anyway, in So. VA at least. Y'all don't care about us and our kids. Y'all care about youre profits. Good luck nutil we win.

[moderate]

You guys don't have anything to say until

[moderate]

I'm up all night and my 2 children are going to go hungry if Harris Miller send our jobs to India. Youre yuppie jobs to India too. We should band togther software geeks and miners and find our common Americanness... I know its there, except for harris miller.

[Lowell]

Ben: You know I'm strongly for Webb, but why wouldn't the #1 suspect here be the Allen/Wadhams campaign? Seems like exactly the kind of thing they'd do, and they certainly have the money to do it. Man, this is going to be a NASTY general election campaign between Webb and Allen...

"Look for the source that is least mentioned."

It's strange how quiet Lowell and Josh have been on this issue. I smell a set up.

[Dannyboy]

It DOES sound like something Allen would do, Lowell, but I don't think Allen is scared enough to go into attack mode yet. I could be completely wrong, and it may be Allen playing dirty again.

[Alicia]

I smell restraint

[Alicia]

and if it wasn't the Miller camp, they should really do themselves a favor and take the 30 seconds to respond.

[Dannyboy]

I've e-mailed the Miller Campaign about this. Everybody else should as well. The longer they stay silent, the worse it looks for them. Also, has anybody e-mailed Allen or Pew? That would probably be a good idea as well.

[Virginia Centrist]

As a Webb supporter, I have to chime in here - not on the call thing, but the outsourcing thing...

Outsourcing is good! That's not Webb's opinion, but it's mine.

Let's do it more rather than less. Let's bring the new economy and purge the old...

Ok - back to your argument.

[Chris]

I agree. Outsourcing is good...as long as its George Allen's job!

[Webb Defeats Allen]

The economic dustbowl is upon us. No manufacturing base or middle class to serve as the fertile soil in which a broad national prosperity can take root. Only the false fecundity of chemical economics based on FIRE (finance, insurance, and real estate), industries that produce nothing, but merely move digits.

Dustbowl.

[Dannyboy]

Hello? Harris Miller? George Allen? Either or you going to answer?

[Anonymous Is A Woman]

Actually, too much outsourcing (as opposed to free and fair trade) is a terrible idea and not just for the economy. A nation with no industrial base and one that produces no steel, defense materiel, or consumer goods is a nation looking at real national security problems. Blockade, anybody?

Why would we be any less vulnerable to blockades, or even an OPEC-style stoppage of the flow of steel goods or other necessities into our ports if everything is produced outside of our country and we just flip the burgers and wash the windows of the rich.

You know, this is partly why the South lost the Civil War. A successful Northern blockage of their ports that stopped the flow of goods and cash.

But a military man like Webb would know his history. While Harris, a successful businessman and lobbyist (for Diebold, no less), just knows his profit and loss statement.

[Virginia Centrist]

A blockade? What???

If we can get goods cheaper, then we can make more planes and more ships, thereby strengthening our position.

Look at our unemployment rate right now...all of the outsourcing in the world hasn't damaged the overall vibrance of the economy. In the aggregate, it definitely helps us.

[Alicia]

Is this how it helps our unemployment rate?

Pay cuts may halt offshore outsourcing

By Marilyn Geewax, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Oct 21, 2003

Washington -- As U.S. companies send more high-tech work overseas, they are creating a "downward pressure on salaries" that may help slow American job losses, a technology industry leader told Congress on Monday.

Indeed, U.S. workers may have to get used to lower wages, said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America.

Unlike the late 1990s when the tech sector was booming, U.S. workers can't expect employers to offer "six-figure incomes to technical people with little or no actual on-the-job training," Miller told the House Committee on Small Business.

Americans must face the "hard truth" that offshore firms not only offer information technology services for "a fraction of the cost," but can "compete for increasingly more sophisticated and complex IT work," he said.

The silver lining, Miller said, is that "a more competitive payroll picture may undercut (U.S. employers') need to move jobs offshore."

Miller said cutting wages is not the only strategy for staying competitive. He said a key step is to provide greater value, which means raising the skills of U.S. workers and the creativity of U.S. firms. "The U.S. cannot legislate or regulate its way out of this perplexing situation," he said. He called on Congress to boost funding for tech education, approve trade agreements to open more markets to U.S. goods and services, and make the tax credit for research and development permanent.

But another witness, Natasha Humphries of Santa Clara, Calif., said that despite her efforts to boost her value through greater education, she still lost her job this year.

A 1996 graduate from Stanford University, Humphries pursued a tech career in California's Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. She focused on acquiring "new skills through classes, seminars and self study" to become a senior software quality assurance engineer at Palm Inc., which makes handheld computing devices.

Despite having a well-educated workforce in this country, Palm recently "began an aggressive campaign to outsource all testing assignments to India and China," she said.

Workers in those countries accepted contracts paying $2 to $5 an hour, compared with wages of $30 to $60 an hour in California, she said.

the Republican party?

[Dannyboy]

Well, no answer from the Miller Campaign. You've got a tough Weenie of the Week challenge between Miller and Conolly, Ben.

[J.C. Wilmore]

Miller thinks he's above responding to questions.

Should make for an interesting conference call . . .

Heard from another FCDC member who got the poll. It is definately Miller polling. It also looks like they are trying to hide the fact that it is them. It is really incumbent of them to come forward now.

[Alicia]

I've also heard about strongly negative email blasts re: Webb from Miller's campaign going around the state.

I guess if you can't go positive on your own merits, you act like a snake.

[I Do Not Trust Webb]

Alicia,

I'm on the Miller campaign email list.

Infact, I am on both of the Miller campaign lists: The press release and the supporter.

I have not received any negative emails. I have friends in Roanoke, Richmond, Newport News, and Arlington. They are on Miller's email lists, and as far as I know (and I speak with all of them weekly), none of them have received any negative emails about Webb (from the Miller campaign).

Go find those so-called emails, or lay off the Kool Aid and take off the tinfoil.

Alicia,

Have you received such an email? Where did you hear this?

[Dannyboy]

IDNTW:

Do you have any way of reaching the Miller Team for a comment on this poll? The longer the team waits to answer the more guilty it looks. Miller supporter or not, you have to realize that it's kind of weird that they won't respond to Ben.

[I Do Not Trust Webb]

Dannyboy,

That’s an honest question, so I’ll give you an honest answer.

Yes, I spoke with two people from the Miller campaign late Friday. The subject was about one, possible two events in late April and/or early May. I knew about NLS’ conspiracy theory on a so-called Push Poll, but I never bothered to ask the Miller campaign.

Why? Because Harris Miller, his campaign manager, his communications director, etc., etc., have been involved with political campaigns for a while, and none of them would ever resort to a Push Poll. If they did, they probably would be ran out of the state Democratic Party.

Push Polls are the worst forms of smear. If such a poll were to happen to FCDC members, all hell would have already broken loose. It would have been so ugly that the local news outlets would have reported.

What likely happened, if there really was a poll, is a poll conducted to canvass each candidates’ strengths and weaknesses. These kinds of polls happen all the time. I was called to participate in three polls in 2004 and 2005. All three of them were Democrat-oriented, and showcased the plus/minus of each potential Democratic candidate.

When Leslie and Chap were against each other in the Lt. Governor primary, I took a phone poll on their plus/minus attributes. I answered the questions, and I did not know who sponsored that poll. That’s the point of these kinds of polls: the intent is to seek out perceptions and convictions without risk of tainting another candidate.

That is why this thread has been so funny. This issue is baseless. Again, if it was a Push Poll, then there would have been a series of reports from the FCDC, the local media, and the conservative and liberal bloggers.

So did Miller, Allen, or some other organization conduct the poll? I don’t know. Why hasn’t the Miller campaign paid their respects to you, NLS, and whoever else emailed them about this issue? Because sometimes it is better to ignore bad rumors and smear; NLS makes himself look foolish for not providing hard evidence.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Now I am f***ing pissed IDNTW. I HAVE NEVER CALLED IT A PUSH POLL.

[I Do Not Trust Webb]

NLS,

Your pissed? You diectly accuse Harris Miller/Miller Campaign of mis-identifying while polling.

Then show hard evidence of misleading and/or mis-identifying.

Go to your friend (the lady who received the call), and encourage her to file a complaint.