Rex Griswold gets tricky

I had someone call me today and tell me that they got a weird phone call regarding the Mesa Mayor's race. It was some sort of survey, but once they answered who they were voting for, the operator shared negative information about the candidate. I thought this was curious, so I looked around, and sure enough there are other folks confirming that this activity is going on. Of course, Rex Watch is talking about it and Scott Smith even released an official statement about it.

I didn't know much about it, but apparently this technique is known as push polling, which is "is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll."

I did a little research and apparently and its not the first time that it has happened in a heated Mesa race. I found a Tribune article from a few years ago talking about the Riverview campaign and how the opponents were doing "political telemarketing." Now that I think about it, I remember hearing some stuff about this during that campaign. Well, it didn't seem to end up working so well for those guys.

I wonder if Griswold will have any better luck.