Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Did Team Hudak just give the win to Christine?

Okay, so the Party says it wasn't the Klees Campaign who paid for that push-poll last week, as they've dismissed the Hudak Campaign's complaint as being "without merit". I know it wasn't the Elliott Campaign, from the folks I've talked to. (serious folks, I trust my source) So just who paid for the anti-Hudak push-poll last week?

Here's my analysis of the situation... the Hudak Campaign may have just given the win to Christine Elliott. Think about it... they accused Frank's team of some serious stuff. With only days left to go, the Party has said, "Nope, you guys got it wrong". Now there's a whole bunch of really ticked off Klees supporters, who in all likelihood had initially planned to vote for Tim as their #2 pick.

You think those #2 votes are gonna hold? I'm thinking not so much... and I think Tim needed those 2nd votes to win this thing.

It's right down to the wire, and things just got real interesting...

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posted by Christian Conservative @ 11:32 p.m.  

15 Comments:

  • At Sun Jun 21, 12:25:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I was Frank and then Tim. Christine Elliott gets my second ballot. I've heard some of the stuff you've talked about.

    Hudak blew it, again.

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 12:29:00 a.m. EDT, Blogger Paul M said…

    Well, if Chritine didn't do it and Klees didn't do it, who did?

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 03:16:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Too bad if Ms. Elliot wins. I will never support a Red Tory in any way, shape or form.
    Just Liberal-lite!

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 10:37:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous kirby said…

    All Tim needs are Randy Hillier's votes and it will be his. My guess is that anybody voting for Randy on their first ballot, will vote for Tim on the second or not vote at all because Elliot and Klees have done everything they can NOT to reach out to those supporters.

    I don't think Elliot and Klees combined have enough to beat those two combined.

    Your thoughts?

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 02:36:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    LOL you moron. The party did NOT rule that the Klees campaign did not pay for the poll, they ruled that Hudak's motion was without merit, meaning the poll did not break the rules of the leadership contest.

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 08:08:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Anon@2:36, you're right, thanks for the correction... but did you really have to call me a "moron"?

    My premise still stands though... there's gonna be a few ticked off Klees supporters who are gonna be rethinking their #2 ballot.

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 08:16:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger cycroft said…

    Most likely 2nd choice for Klees supporters is Christine Elliott--can't see this making a substantial difference to Hudak's fortunes.

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 09:35:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous ThinkAboutIt said…

    CC: Not nearly as many people who are pissed off for getting that push poll.

    Whomever did it - and I agree with Anon, the Party didn't "clear" Frank, they just didn't go after Frank - just got a bunch of Hudak folks really p-ed off by getting such a call.

    One last note: if you think that Frank supporters will flock to a Red Tory like Elliott - beyond the Elliott staffers - you're mistaken. The so-cons supporting Frank will NOT be supporting Elliott, push polling accusations or not.

     

  • At Sun Jun 21, 11:55:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Randy Hillier will get around 8-12%of the actual vote. Many votes will only choose Randy, some will go to Frank and some to Elliott.

    Hudak needs Klees on the 2nd ballot. Christian Conservative is right in suggesting that more of Frank's vote (which was already splitting to Christine) will now solitify around Elliott than Hudak.

    Hudak made a mistake suggesting that Frank was Liberal Lite at the debate and his campaign made a mistake filing this complaint which was found to not have any merit.

    It makes no sense.

     

  • At Mon Jun 22, 10:46:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Blair McCreadie said…

    Hi Andrew:

    I had the opportunity to read your posting. We thought it would be important that your readers understand a few facts regarding these calls, which have also been posted on Stephen Taylor's blog.

    First, the Klees Campaign admitted to the Party during the hearing that it authorized the offending script, which we maintain is a push poll.

    Second, the Klees Campaign also admitted to the Party that it retained Logit Group to do a blind poll, so that the true source of the calls would be concealed from Party members.

    Third, the Klees Campaign admitted to the Party that Logit Group made hundreds of these calls to Tim Hudak supporters across the province.

    The Klees Campaign defended these calls as "research", although push polls appear to violate CRTC telemarketing guidelines and contravene legitimate market research standards.

    Given that the Klees Campaign admitted to making these calls, we are obviously disappointed that the Party chose not to punish the Klees Campaign for conducting this negative push poll.

    But we are pleased that, because of our investigation, Party members who complained about this inappropriate push poll can cast their vote knowing that the Klees Campaign was responsible for it.

    We also thank the Party for issuing a new guideline requiring all calling firms to reveal which campaign retained them when calling the Party membership.

    This increased level of transparency is important to Party members. It will also prevent the Klees Campaign from conducting other divisive push polls for the rest of this leadership race.

    Our campaign recognizes that unifying and rebuilding our great Party will be a key task for our new Leader. This principle has governed our campaign throughout this leadership race, and will continue to do so as we enter this important final week.

    I appreciate the opportunity to share this additional information with your readers so they can come to their own conclusions.

    Blair McCreadie
    Co-Chair, Tim Hudak Leadership Campaign

     

  • At Mon Jun 22, 11:38:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Let's set the facts straight:

    a) The Klees campaign admitted to contracting the polling company for the push poll

    b) The Klees campaign admitted to concealing the identity of the research company

    Both of these actions by the Klees campaign are unethical at best, and at worst poisonous to a leadership campaign that has thus far been centred around policy and not personal attacks.

    It is deeply disappointing that the party chose not to punish the Klees campaign. They have NOT been cleared in this matter though.

    At the very least the party has changed the guidlines to prevent research companies from concealing their identity in the future in a leadership race.

    It is, however, unfortunate precedent to set that push polls are now a "legitimate" tactic in the eyes of the party.

    In terms of of pissed off supporters. I don't think Hudak, Elliott or Hillier supporters are too impressed with the tactics used by the Klees campaign. If anything will backfire it will be on them. Push polls have no place in an internal leadership race. We need to be able to unite to defeat McGuinty in 2011.

     

  • At Mon Jun 22, 12:57:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Nathalie Caron said…

    I find it disappointing that the Party found this complaint to be without merit, it’s pretty clear to me that the poll in question here has two of the qualities of a push-poll: 1) that it was conducted anonymously (through a 3rd party which did not identify its affiliation) and 2) that its questions were in attempt to smear candidate Tim Hudak (at least as reported by Stephen Taylor).

    Though I can understand the Party’s rationale in trying to keep their distance not to appear to be siding with the Tim Hudak campaign, I think that the Party’s decision to formally request that future polls clearly identify which campaign they represent demonstrates that there was something legitimate about this complaint. You don’t prescribe a remedy when nothing is ailing, I’m sure you all agree.

    It appears that the Party did not want to pursue these allegations, probably due to how close we now are to the conclusion of this leadership contest. But had they considered otherwise, I am sure would have shown the Hudak camp was in the right, considering that the Klees campaign admitted to the Party that they were behind those calls.

    As for those who argue that this complaint is evidence that the Hudak campaign broke the “11th commandment” I think this is further political opportunism coming from the Klees campaign. Defending yourself from a push-poll which specifically targets your supporters in an attempt to make you look bad is far from speaking ill of fellow members to make political gains. On the other hand, it is clear that the Klees campaign has no interest in following that philosophy.

     

  • At Tue Jun 23, 03:43:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I cannot beleive how the Hudak Campaign expects to fight the media, unions and the Liberals if they can't handle a little heat in this leadership race.

    Whining, bitching, moaning, this is so unfair.

    Sound like a bunch of babies.

     

  • At Tue Jun 23, 05:02:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Blair should simply say he is sorry to Frank Klees for a false accusation against his campaign.

    All he is doing right now is hurting Tim's second ballot appeal by failing to admit he was wrong as determined by the party.

     

  • At Tue Jun 23, 09:25:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    "Blair should simply say he is sorry"

    Not likely to happen in this lifetime. The man thinks he is better than all of us little people.

    What a joke.

     

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