Phone survey gets voters riled up

Talk last week about a telephone survey that appeared to be connected with this year's Whitefish City Council elections created a buzz among concerned voters.

One person characterized the survey as a "push poll" — whereby an individual or organization working under the guise of conducting a poll tries to influence or alter the view of respondents.

Another person told the Pilot she was asked if she would take a three-minute poll about whether residents of Whitefish were satisfied with government. When the surveyor mentioned voters, the person said she lived outside the city limits — in the "doughnut — and the surveyor said that was OK.

The surveyor asked about water quality, the importance of affordable housing, the cost of housing, regulation of "doughnut" residents by the city, if city government was doing a good job, if the city budget was well managed and if residential growth was at the right pace.

The polling effort went awry when the surveyor was asked who had hired them and he answered "the county of Whitefish." When the respondent told the surveyor that Whitefish was a city and questioned if the city had in fact hired them, the surveyor said yes, the city had hired them.

The surveyor also said he worked for North American Research Group, Inc., of Fargo, N.D. The Pilot later confirmed by phone that the company had conducted a poll in Whitefish.

Two Whitefish residents reacted to the telephone survey at the Sept. 21 city council meeting. Richard Hildner said he was "angry and sad that an unknown organization was impugning the city." Dick Zoellner called the surveyors' reluctance to identify themselves "underhanded."

Incumbent city council candidate Frank Sweeney, in a recent opinion piece submitted to the Pilot, said the pollsters "misrepresented themselves' and claimed that "their purpose seems to be to divide us rather than to provide useful information."

The Pilot contacted a number of individuals and organizations who are active in this year's council election to find out if they knew about the survey.

Both Theresa Keveany, executive director of Montana Conservation Voters, which has a registered political action committee, and Toby Scott, whose Downtown Merchants Association and Concerned Citizens Group is not registered but may want to support candidates, said they didn't know about the phone surveys. MCV has decided to support incumbent Frank Sweeney.

Neither Denise Smith, executive director of the Flathead Business and Industry Association, nor Rick Blake, the man behind We Love Stumptown, said they knew about the phone surveys. Both organizations have registered PACs that may support or oppose candidates. Duncan Scott, a Kalispell attorney who is interested in Whitefish issues and politics, also said he didn't know about the telephone survey.

While Blake has not yet chosen which city council candidates to support, Smith said the FBIA will support Phil MItchell, Bill Kahle and Chris Hyatt.

The FBIA has conducted a survey in the past about "doughnut" issues, and Blake said he intends to conduct a survey soon. Blake said he sees the value in conducting an opinion poll before this year's election, but he says he wants to be upfront about it and tell respondents who is conducting the survey.

Citizens For A Better Flathead is not conducting a survey, but it often provides questions to city council candidates and prints the candidates' answers in a newsletter.

Eight questions posed to this year's candidates by Citizens ranged from transparency in government, local economic challenges and the public's role in civil discourse to rapid growth, city-county cooperation, energy, and air and water quality.

John Sinrud, the government affairs director for the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors, said his organization hired a company in the Washington, D.C., to conduct several polls of NMAR members and the public.

"After completing my research with the firm that was commissioned to complete our survey, we have determined that they did hire North American Research Group," Sinrud told the Pilot. "We have thoroughly investigated the process that was used during the telephone interviews and found that they were nothing less than professional in their interview process."

Sinrud said NMAR received a copy of a letter by city attorney John Phelps about the matter.

"To forthrightly respond to the accusations asserted, NMAR has given authorization to North American Research Group to release our name and a copy of the polling questions," Sinrud said.

Sinrud also said NMAR's political action committee does not plan to support or oppose any city council candidates this year. Instead, there will be a media program to inform the public about NMAR and area Realtors, he said.