Gibbons misleads again
Inside Liberty Watch Today - August 9, 2006
For a campaign that has shamelessly painted a tax-and-spend picture about Bob Beers, it's not surprising to hear another bogus message from Camp Gibbons - this one in the form of a poll. Less than two weeks ago, Gibbons felt the heat of a narrowing lead. He responded with negative radio and television spots. Now - despite two other credible polls indicating a dead heat - Gibbons and Co. continue to mislead Nevada Republicans.
A Peter Hart poll, conducted before last Friday's Republican gubernatorial debate, placed Beers 8 points behind Gibbons. With 24 percent undecided in that poll, it was any candidate's race. And just this Tuesday, activist Chuck Muth (who was not hired by any gubernatorial camp) released a poll that showed Gibbons with 31 points and Beers with 29.
Then today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal runs this amusing headline: "Poll shows Beers 20 points behind Gibbons." Who paid for the poll? Gibbons' gang.
Gibbons hired national pollster Glen Bolger to have his company survey 500 Republicans. Those polled claimed they usually vote in primaries. Bolger's firm, Public Opinion Strategies, tallied 48 points for Gibbons and 28 for Beers. It'd be interesting to learn the framework of the question asked to these likely voters. Did it involve a title for Congressman Jim Gibbons? Did it exclude titles for the other candidates?
As the primary election nears, Nevada voters continue to witness Gibbons resorting to manipulation. His numbers have fallen drastically since the beginning of this race. He has shifted to the defensive and released comical ads that define Beers as a liberal spender. Today we see his latest manipulation - releasing a campaign-sponsored poll and passing it off as legitimate, even though it's not representative of any other recent poll. Anyone who buys these lies deserves Gibbons as their governor.
With any poll, a campaign must define what it is they are looking for. Otherwise, the poll runs the risk of producing erroneous or unintended results. Measurement error results from flaws in the instrument, question wording, question order, interviewer error, and timing among other issues. This is perhaps the most common and most problematic collection of errors faced by the polling industry.
While it would be easy to discount this poll as flawed, I'll venture a guess that Camp Gibbons defined what it wanted this poll to find - numbers that place Gibbons in a commanding lead. So, with Gibbons' money behind the project, that's what the poll found.
When forced to take this race seriously, we see how Gibbons reacts. Imagine what he'll do if forced to take the governor's job seriously. Early signs indicate his actions will involve misleading Nevada.
BY MIKE ZIGER
Editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine, Mike Zigler also manages internal communications for several Strip properties. He is former news editor of Las Vegas CityLife and former editor of the UNLV Rebel Yell.
Liberty Watch On-Line
3111 S. Valley View
Suite B-109
Las Vegas, NV, 89102
Phone: 702-385-3320
Fax: 702-385-5488
