Saturday, January 17, 2004

Kerry Going Stealth Negative Caught on Film


"The person who made the call is a young volunteer whose remarks were not authorized or condoned by this campaign," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement. "It's a terrible mistake for a young person to make, and he is apologizing to the person he called. While we appreciate his support, we have asked him to leave the campaign."

But the Dean campaign said it was under the impression that the call did not represent just one over-zealous volunteer speaking extemporaneously. Rather, the campaign said in the last day it had heard of Kerry campaign calls to at least five other Iowans reading from what it said sounded like a very similar script.

ABCNEWS has spoken to another Iowa Dean supporter, Susan Alexander, who said she received a phone call on the same night as Astley, which sounded like it came from the same script.

A third Iowan, Dick Alexander, told ABCNEWS he received a phone call about two weeks ago from an organization claiming to be a polling firm unaffiliated with any candidate, in which pro-Kerry and anti-Dean information was conveyed.

The Alexander call, should it have happened, would meet the definition of a "push poll" — a call purportedly from an objective polling firm that actually seeks to "push" voters away from candidates by spreading negative information about them.

el - ABCNEWS still going for the negative but this time not after Dean.

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