'Tis the Season for Push Polling

The Delaware-based group Common Sense Issues is using automated phone calls to Iowa voters to talk up Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and spread negative information about his rivals. Mitt Romney's campaign has asked the Iowa attorney general to investigate the push poll calls. Common Sense Issues, which hired the ccAdvertising firm for the calls, also set up a website and "hopes to run TV ads and launch get-out-the-vote efforts on Huckabee's behalf." Huckabee has asked the group to stop the calls. Other possibly illegal push poll calls "made in New Hampshire last month ... conveyed negative remarks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and flattering remarks about John McCain," reports the New Hampshire Union Leader. The calls "were placed by Western Wats of Orem, Utah," though it's not clear who hired them. Western Wats has "conducted polling for the Tarrance Group, which works for candidate Rudy Giuliani," though "several employees of Western Wats have made donations to the Romney campaign."