Kondrake's folks question Ed's "chutzpah"

In an article publised today in Roll Call, Stuart Rothenburg caps off his list of "the silliest, most misleading and overzealous press releases that I receive" with Ed Bryant's numerous releases exclaiming his lead in the Republican Primary based on the Harold Ford Jr. poll. Here are the last few paragraphs:

It’s That Time Again: Mindless Press Releases, 2005 Edition
By Stuart Rothenberg
Roll Call Contributing Writer
May 9, 2005

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But as silly as the Nebraska Democratic Party and NRSC releases are, they come nowhere near the gall of a release by Senate hopeful Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.). The April 6 release’s headline, "New Poll Shows Bryant Leading GOP Field," isn’t the problem. It’s the sub-head: "Corker’s Growth in Polls Stalled by Record of Higher Taxes." Corker’s "growth," of course, hasn’t "stalled" because of anything, since nobody is paying enough attention to the Tennessee Senate race or the GOP primary to draw conclusions from early polling.

The "new poll" in the Bryant release is interesting for a number of other reasons. First, it was conducted by a Democratic firm, The Global Strategy Group, for Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Harold Ford Jr. It’s nice to know that Bryant has enough confidence in a Democratic survey to write a release about it. Second, the survey’s numbers actually contradict the Bryant release proclaiming Corker has "stalled." The Ford poll showed Corker at 15 percent, while two earlier polls (one for Bryant and one for former Congressman Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.), who is also running for the Senate) showed Corker at only 8 percent and 13 percent.

And third, the Bryant release says that the overall poll of 600 likely voters and the sub-sample of 190 Republicans (yes, only 190 Republicans) "each had a margin of +/- 6%." Is it too much to hope that the people writing Bryant’s release might beaware that a poll’s margin of error is based on the size of the sample, and that a sample of 600 and another of 190 can’t possibly have the same margin or error? But my fundamental problem with the release is that it masquerades as a survey analysis, when it is nothing more than propaganda, or rather advocacy. The "analysis" is simply Bryant’s campaign attacking Corker. Attack if you must, even if nobody is watching, but at least have the chutzpah to do it directly and honestly.

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That seems to cover it. I wonder if Ed will be mentioning Mort as often as he has been after this gets out.