District 73 candidate upset over questions in GOP poll
By Sebastian Kitchen, August 22, 2010
A contender for a local seat in the Alabama House of Representatives is up in arms about a poll run by Republicans in his district that he said inaccurately tells people he defended corrupt politicians and sued local businesses as an attorney.
Democrat Joe Hubbard is challenging Republican state Rep. David Grimes for the District 73 seat.
Hubbard has voiced his concerns that the question asking if people would be more or less likely to support him if they knew "Joe Hubbard is a lawyer who has sued local businesses and has defended many corrupt Montgomery politicians."
Hubbard said he has never represented Montgomery public officials or sued local businesses. He considers it a push poll -- a type of poll that, instead of being done to obtain opinions, asks loaded and unfounded questions that contain negative information about a candidate in an attempt to influence voters.
"The polls we run are truthful and accurate. They are not push polls and we stand behind the truthfulness of the polls," said Philip Bryan, communications director for the Alabama Republican Party.
If the Republican Party has evidence, Hubbard said "I don't know what it is."
"I have never represented any official in Montgomery County and I have never sued a local business in Montgomery County," he said. "That is something you can go in the court system and verify."
Hubbard said his firm, Webb & Eley, works for the Association of County Commissions of Alabama and counties in the association that participate in a liability fund, and Montgomery is not one of those.
Bryan said Hubbard has defended people he does not want to talk about, but Bryan would not expand on which businesses Hubbard had sued and which politicians he defended.
"I'm sure all Democrats that we are running against would love nothing more than for us to provide the details on how we will conduct our campaigns, in formation that we've received or data that's been collected -- but that wouldn't necessarily be in the best interest of electing a Republican majority for the first time in 136 years," Bryan said.
Hubbard called the Montgomery Advertiser at least seven times to say that he was troubled by the poll. He said he heard from several people in the district who received the call and were concerned about the poll.
Grimes, who is running for a third term in the House, said he knew a poll was being conducted by the party and he did authorize the questions, but did not originally know when the poll was being conducted.
Grimes, who is in the life insurance business, said the word "corrupt" was not in the last version of the questions he authorized.
"I didn't see or realize the word 'corrupt' was in there -- not in my copy," he said. "This was a mistake. ... I am regretful that that question was even in there. That was naivete on my part. It is too late. You can't un- ring the bell."
Bryan said the party approves the questions used by its pollster, McLaughlin & Associates.
"I have heard from (party chairman) Mike Hubbard and (party executive director) John Ross that they are very unhappy that question is in the poll. Everything else in there is OK," Grimes said.
Bryan responded: "Mike Hubbard isn't mad. John Ross isn't mad."
Grimes said he did not know if Joe Hubbard had represented corrupt politicians or if he had sued local businesses. He said only 300 people in the district of 48,000 received the call.
Grimes said information from the website of Hubbard's law firm, stating he "has represented many county officials, including sheriffs and county commissioners, in state and federal court," was used to help assemble the questions.
"I have not looked at his record. I have not gone fishing to find bad stuff on him," Grimes said. "I d on't know what he does. I do not care what he does. My campaign did not pay for it."
He said he would point out to people that Hubbard is a Democrat and that he is supported by the Alabama Education Association.
In explaining why Grimes did not know as much about some of the details, Bryan said "This is our poll ... We paid for it." He said the party researched the questions.
Bryan said the party is message-testing issues to determine which issues resonate with voters, and to determine where to spend its resources leading up to the November election. He said the party wants accurate information, which it would not receive from a push poll.
Bryan said the Alabama Republican Party and McLaughlin & Associates do not have a reputation or record for running push polls. He contested several previous claims by Democrats that polls being run in other House and Senate districts were "deceptive and negative push polls."
Hubbard believes the poll is a violation of the Clean Campaign Pledge that he and Grimes signed in June.
"Mr. Grimes can run his campaign how they want to or the Republican Party can run his campaign how they want to, but I am going to run my campaign the way I told the people of this community I would," he said.
Grimes disagrees that he violated the pledge and said Hubbard misrepresented and took liberties with several points in their conversation.
