The Citizen’s Clean Elections Commission has awarded Rep. Ted Downing nearly $8,000 in matching funds, ruling that the cost of a ‘push poll’ about spousal rape was an independent expenditure to benefit Sen. Paula Aboud, his opponent in the Democrat Senate primary in District 28.
Although it is not yet known who was behind the poll, the commission awarded Mr. Downing $7,974 Aug. 30 on a 5-0 vote, finding that phone calls regarding the poll advocated for Ms. Aboud’s election. The callers said Mr. Downing voted against a spousal rape bill in 2005, and Ms. Aboud supported increased penalties for men who rape their wives.
The National Council on Public Polls describes a push poll as a “telemarketing technique in which telephone calls are used to canvass vast numbers of potential voters, feeding them false and damaging ‘information’ about the candidate under the guise of taking a poll…”
Ms. Aboud was not in the Senate in 2005. Mr. Downing said he opposed the bill because it did not contain stiffer penalties for people who falsely report spousal rape.
“The phone calls clearly appear to cast Aboud in a positive light, while casting Downing in a negative light,” stated the commission, which based its award on the estimated cost of polling 11,075 potential voters at 72 cents per call. Mr. Downing had asked for $40,000.
Ms. Aboud has denied involvement in the poll, and the commission says it has no evidence the expenditures were made by her campaign.
Executive Director Todd Lang said the commission will try to find out who made the calls, starting with interviews with Ms. Aboud and Mr. Downing.
“Assuming either of them don’t have any information, we’re going to talk to experts in the field, consultants and the like, and see if they have any suggestions as to where they may have come from,” he said, adding the commission also will talk to Democratic Party officials.
Mr. Downing, who is trying to unseat Ms. Aboud — appointed to replace Gabrielle Giffords who is running for Congress — has accused the senator of mailing a “hit piece” about his voting record.
“My good name and reputation in this community are on the line,” Mr. Downing said in a grievance letter to the Pima County Democratic Party’s executive committee. He requested that Democrats “impose the strongest sanction possible.”