Jonathan Jordan Testing Attack Lines Against Ray Russell

Ray Russell

We're hearing from several people in the 93rd House District that they've gotten push-poll calls that were obviously testing lines of attack against weatherman Ray Russell, who is challenging incumbent Republican Jonathan Jordan for the seat.

You know how those "polls" go, right? "Would you be more/or less inclined to vote for Ray Russell if you knew he eats raw chicken and kicks puppies?"

Jordan, who gets most of his campaign money from special interest PACs (in the Second Quarter, Jordan reported raising only $4,850 from individual contributors and $11,300 from PACs), has depended on third-party dark-money groups to do his dirty work, like Real Jobs NC which pumped in the bucks in 2010 for Jordan by smearing Democratic incumbent Cullie Tarleton.

Compare Ray Russell's campaign. Russell has almost 600 individual contributors, the majority of which are from the 93rd House District.

If you'd like to help the Russell campaign against the Jonathan Jordan smears to come, click this link.

Wherein We Learn From Jonathan Jordan's Latest "Push Poll" and Have Some Questions Ourselves

Yesterday we received information about Jonathan Jordan via an email: 

Got a call on my home phone from some woman saying she represented some generic sounding agency like civic polling or something like that, wanting to ask me a few questions about the upcoming November elections.

First, very courteously, she wanted to know if this was a cell phone and if I was in a place to safely conduct the survey. I was home so no problem. Are you a registered voter? How likely to vote in November? What party registration -- Lib, Repub, Dem, Ind?

"I want to read you a list of candidates," she said, "to see if you recognize names. First name was Jonathan Jordan, then came others including Sue Counts [Jordan's Democratic opponent]. Did I have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Jordan? Counts?

"If I told you Jordan had voted for the higest education budget in NC's history, with average pay raise for teachers of 7%, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?  If I told you he backed Gov. McCrory's tax cuts that average 15% per NC family, would you be more or less likely? If I told you he voted to protect the integrity of our voting process by supporting a Voter ID bill, would you be more or less likely?"

"For Sue Counts, if I told you she is a radical liberal who supports the NAACP and Rev. Barber's Moral Monday demonstrations, would you be more or less likely to vote for her? If I told you she backs Obamacare? That she opposes the reforms McCrory has made to our state taxes?"

Well, okay then. We all know about the Republican habit of using such "polls," which really aren't polls at all but are intended to plant misinformation in a voter's mind that will impact his voting … in this case, that Sue Counts is a radical liberal and hangs out with black people.

Well, seems only fair that two can play at this game, with the difference being that we would base our questions on hard, cold fact. To wit:

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan had one of the worst constituent services of all the General Assembly members, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that the Jonathan Jordan campaign is currently attacking his opponent with racist, sexist, and unchristian slurs, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan pushed through the tax increase on your electric bill, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan pushed through the unpopular changes to the school calendar for Watauga and Ashe counties, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--[In Ashe County only] If I told you that Jonathan Jordan refused to stop Boone's water intake project on the New River, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan refuses to hold or attend a single public town hall meeting in his district to hear what the people think, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan is a leader in pushing through the General Assembly's radical Tea Party agenda, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan pushed through allowing natural gas companies to steal gas from under your personal property without your permission, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan had left his wife and children and has a new girlfriend, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

--If I told you that Jonathan Jordan helped pass a huge tax cut for the super-rich, which will leave the state budget unbalanced this year and the schools begging for money, would you be more or less likely to vote for him?

Newt Gingrich Wants Me for His Army

So a little after 8 this a.m., the phone rings, and this young man on the other end sez he wants me to take an important opinion survey, but first would I listen to a short, informative message before answering some questions.

'Fraid we never got to the questions, because the recorded message was from one Newt Gingrich. I wasn't taking notes -- hell, I was only on my first cup of coffee -- but I clearly heard "liberal, liberal, liberal ... socialist, socialist, socialist" and the general pitch that the serial fornicator Mr. Newt and I (presumably, or else why was he calling me?) could together Take Back Our Country.

When the young man came back on the line, I'm afraid I didn't take his questions, since it hardly seemed worth the effort to mess with his minimum-wage call-center head ... since he was not the author nor perpetrator of this particular piece of crap and only the victim, really, of needing a job.

What I learn from this is that THEY'RE STILL IN CAMPAIGN MODE and intend to cajole and bully the voters for the next two years.

If anyone else gets the same call, perhaps you'll be more patient and let us all know what corporate scum claims to be paying for it.

The Rotten Fruit of Dan Soucek

Just received from a Wilkes County correspondent:

I am fuming mad. I just received a call from a group which identified itself as "Southern Outreach" saying they were doing a research poll and asked whom I would be supporting for NC State Senate. When I indicated I'd be voting for Steve Goss, the canned call went on to go through three disgusting questions beginning with, "IF you knew that Steve Goss did..." and stated a bunch of ridiculous nonsense that could negatively influence people uninformed enough to know how much good Goss has done for our county, district, and state. At the end, the caller said the so-called "survey" was paid for by the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee.

If, indeed, the NC Republican Executive Committee sponsored these grossly misleading calls (and I hesitate to believe anything the "robo"-caller said), then the NCREC should be ashamed and apologize both publicly and to every individual who received this stupidly unfair piece of propaganda insulting our superb public servant, Senator Steve Goss.

Ultimately, Dan Soucek bears the blame for this kind of smear, because ultimately Dan Soucek stands to benefit from it.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"
Matt. 7:16

Who Is Funding Jonathan Jordan?

Jonathan Jordan is the Ashe County lawyer running against Cullie Tarleton in the 93rd NC House District. He's a former staffer at the John Locke Foundation, the extreme right-wing umbrella org. funded by the Pope family to promote bad ideas like using state tax dollars to provide tax credits for home schooling, while calling for the complete abolishing of corporate taxes. They beat the drum for off-shore oil drilling. The John Locke Foundation is consistently hostile to alternative energy research like wind and solar and are part of the brigade that denies global climate change.

Anonymous manipulators have been push-polling for Mr. Jordan, smearing Cullie Tarleton with all sorts of baseless accusations. And now they've started with TV ads, paid for by a group calling itself "Real Jobs NC," which is, in fact, a group of right-wing high-rollers led by one Fred Eshelman, a Wilmington pharmaceutical executive, and including ... Art Pope. Natch!

Art Pope has been at work for some time trying to remake North Carolina in his own image. Now he's joined by Eshelman.

Greg Flynn has been following the money.

Jonathan Jordan is a made man who apparently thinks that Fred Eshelman and Art Pope can buy him a seat in the NC House by smearing the man who's already in that seat and who has served Ashe and Watauga counties well. That's offensive, on the face of it. As is the fact that Jordan's campaign is "stealth" all the way. There's no "Jonathan Jordan for NC House" website with issue positions, and if you go looking for where he stands, you'll be looking in vain.

There's just those anonymous phone calls smearing Cullie Tarleton and that TV spot paid for by Messrs. Eshelman and Pope to give us any insight into Mr. Jordan's character.

Dan Soucek, Getting Nastier By the Day

A commenter on a thread somewhere below, after my denunciation of Dan Soucek for push-polling against Sen. Steve Goss, posted this:

"Anyone who has ever met Dan Soucek knows that he doesn't participate in smear campaigns."

Tonight, I get this e-mail from a resident of Deep Gap:

"I just thought I would let you know that I was the recipient of an ugly push poll from somebody against Steve Goss (I can only figure it was either the RNC or the Soucek campaign itself). You know how these things go. How do you feel about Obama, Hagen, Purdue, etc.? When I said I had no opinion on Steve Goss, then they asked whether I would be more or less likely to vote for Steve Goss if I had heard the following things -- and then the questions turned increasingly nasty. Would I be more or less likely to vote for him if I knew he supported wasteful spending in Washington, etc. After the second of these I told the woman, 'This is a push poll. You are not asking me legitimate questions. You're reciting Republican talking points!' She said, 'No, these are just statements.' After rehashing the Goss mileage thing [and see this] (in as derogatory language as possible) the next question was would I be more likely to support Steve Goss if I heard he had supported legislation to parole early rapists and murderers, I said, 'Ok, that's enough.' And hung up. I went to Soucek's campaign web site to complain and call on him to denounce these kinds of dirty tricks campaign tactics, but he
doesn't have a place to contact him or an email, so I left it in a comment (which I am sure will be deleted). Soucek should take a stand against these kinds of behaviors. That is, if he's not funding them himself."

Dear earlier Anonymous poster on WataugaWatch: He's either funding this push poll himself, which makes him a sleaze, or he's benefitting from someone else's funding of it, which makes him a lying sleaze. Take your pick.

He can claim he's the biggest Christian ever in this neck of the woods, but these actions proclaim him otherwise, and nakedly, to the world. He's an embarrassment to this county, to his church, and especially to his party.

Jordan Push-Polling Against Cullie Tarleton

Why do they always resort to this? Because they can't win on their own merits or virtues.

Jonathan Jordan, the Republican from Ashe County running against Cullie Tarleton, is polling in this district with this choice question: Would you be more or less inclined to vote for Cullie Tarleton if you knew he were an investment banker who had been charged with embezzlement?

Would you be more or less inclined to vote for Jonathan Jordan if you knew he was a sleazebag lawyer?

For the record, Cullie Tarleton was not an investment banker and has never been charged with anything. Plus he's a good man, which is something we can't say for Mr. Jordan.

Republicans Push-Polling NC General Assembly Races

You know what push-polling is, right? It's when veiled operatives for one political party or the other calls you on the phone, posing as a legitimate polling org., and lies about the guy they want to beat. Got this e-mail just now from a Watauga County voter:

Just got an automated push-poll slamming Jimmy Love. It came from 404-225-5556. After asking a bunch of questions about party affiliation and likelihood of voting, it followed with questions like "Would you be more or less likely to vote for Jimmy Love if you knew he voted to raise taxes by $1 billion?" Then there was another one about his support for rapists...and at that point I hung up.

Jimmy Love? He's a member of the NC House representing Lee and Harnett counties. Don't know Mr. Love -- in fact, can't remember ever hearing of him -- but I'm certainly glad to know that he wanted to raise my taxes by $1 billion and helps facilitate rapists.

The number the call was coming from is a land-line based in Atlanta ... hired guns, no doubt, of the Republican House Caucus or the NC GOP or who-knows-who? But whoever IS paying the bill for this slime ought to look into the effectiveness of what their money is buying ... that a voter in House Dist. 93 is getting a call about House Dist. 51.

This attack on Jimmy Love by fake pollsters is undoubtedly only the tip of the oil-slick. If they're trashing Mr. Love, they're probably also trashing Cullie Tarleton and Steve Goss. You betcha.

P.S. and incidentally: If Steve Goss's Watauga Republican opponent Dan Soucek is in fact "a small businessman," the NC Secretary of State's office has no record of his registering to do business. At least, so far as I could find.

Unpacking the Soucek Push-Poll

The Soucek push-poll asks voters, "Would you be more or less likely to vote for Cullie Tarleton if you knew...

"...he voted for the Home Transfer Tax?"

Fact: Cullie Tarleton did no such thing. He voted for the 2007 state budget which contained a provision to allow county commissioners to put the question to county voters. Apparently, to Soucek, allowing the voters to decide this matter is a grave sin

"...he voted against a high-risk health insurance pool?"

Fact: Cullie Tarleton actually co-sponsored the bill (H 265) that established the High Risk Insurance pool

"...he supports wind turbines on ridge tops?"

Fact: Cullie Tarleton came out against wind turbines on our mountain ridges when the Utilities Commission was considering a proposal to put some 28 or 29 400-foot tall turbines in Ashe County

"...he has been accused of pork barrel spending, to wit, getting money for the Ashe Airport runway extension when some guy in Raleigh says the money could be spent on other projects?"

Fact: This question defines the sleazy in push-polling (as opposed to just blatant lying: see above). "Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that someone had accused him of having an illegitimate black baby?" Gosh, you can always find a "someone" (even if you have to invent him) to accuse a faithful public servant of something awful. But Cullie Tarleton is actually proud of being able to get funding for the Ashe County airport, and if you ask around in Ashe County, you're not going to find many over there who consider it contemptible.

Apparently, in Dan Soucek's world, running for public office gives you license to lie.

The Soucek Push Poll

Have received a much closer transcript of the Soucek poll from someone who was taking careful notes throughout, and with all due deference to the Poly Sci Prof who posted a comment on the thread below, it IS a classic push-poll meant to taint the waters:

The poll is being done by Fallon Public Opinion Research out of Columbus, Oh.

Questions are:

-Is our community going in the wrong or right direction?

-What's the most important issue - roads, crime, cost of living, managing housing and growth, improving business, lowering taxes?

-Do you approve of the job the legislature is doing?

-Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Easley, Cannon, Soucek, Tarleton?

-If election was today, would you vote McCain or Obama?

-If voting today, would you vote for Tarleton/Soucek/Cannon?

- More or less likely to vote for Tarleton if you knew:
He's a retired broadcaster?

Voted for the Home Transfer Tax?

Was the member of the Bd of Dir on a failed S & L that was fined by the feds?

Voted against a hi-risk health insurance pool?

Supports wind turbines on ridge tops?

Was a member of a committee studying how to reduce the high school drop out rate?

Is the incumbent?

Has been accused of pork-barrel spending, to wit, getting money for the Ashe Airport runway extension when some guy in Raleigh says the money could be spent on other projects?

-More or less likely to vote for Soucek if you knew:

He's a helicopter pilot and graduated from West Point?

Opposes the land transfer tax?

Is a small business owner?

Works for Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse?

(The questions stopped when I said "less" to that one, even though there were clearly more questions!)

-Do I consider myself a Dem/Repub/Something else?

-Then the same question a second time: If the election were today, would you vote for Tarleton/Souchek/Cannon?

Dan Soucek Is Push-Polling

Now Republican candidate Dan Soucek is jumping on the push-poll "solution": When your campaign is going nowhere, pick up the telephone and start lying.

Many Democrats have gotten a call from an outfit that claims to be non-partisan but is obviously pushing Dan Soucek against incumbent state Rep. Cullie Tarleton. The main points:

1. Dan is some kind of war hero. Since when did graduating from West Point make you a war hero, when you were never in any war zone?

2. The big lie: Soucek’s push-poll claims that Cullie Tarleton voted for a land transfer tax. Cullie Tarleton never voted for a land transfer tax. He voted for the budget in 2007 that contained a provision that county commissions could put the land transfer tax on the ballot and let the people decide if they wanted it. Jerry Butler used this same lie against Steve Goss in his own push-polling.

3. Another big lie: Soucek’s push-poll claims that Cullie Tarleton was investigated by the Feds for a failed Savings & Loan. The truth: Tarleton was long ago on the board of a Savings & Loan but was never investigated for anything.

Dan Soucek is following the same sleazy path taken by dentist Jerry Butler with this underhanded, fundamentally dishonest means of campaigning. Both Soucek and Butler are following the lead of their presidential candidate, who now doesn’t seem to know the truth from increasingly desperate fictions.

Local Candidate Conducting 'Push Polling'

A "push poll" is a manipulation of voters via telephone, masquerading as a legitimate opinion poll. It' AIN'T an opinion poll and it AIN'T legitimate. The most famous instance of nasty push-polling was used by Karl Rove in 2000 in South Carolina against John McCain (remember him?) ... "Would it change your mind if you knew that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child? Answer 'yes' or 'no,' and try not to drool."

Local Boone dentist Jerry Butler is running against state Sen. Steve Goss in Dist. 45. Butler is conducting a push poll against Goss. We already have two sources on this and expect more.

The distortion we focus on this morning has to do with the land transfer tax option that the state legislature granted to counties. We stress the word option. Goss voted to give counties the option of passing a land-transfer tax. The Butler push-poll, however, is asking this question (wording is obviously approximate): "Would your opinion of Goss change if you knew he voted for a new tax of up to $1,000 when a homeowner sold their home?"

Goss never voted for a new tax. He voted to give local governments the right to ask their citizens if they thought the buying and selling of expensive second-home real estate in their counties might be a source of revenue for those counties, which are frequently expected to provide various services to those developments, from new schools to water/sewer hookups to sheriff protection.

A push poll is inherently a LIE ... masked as an innocent question. So what does that make Jerry Butler?