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On tonight's 10 o'clock news, KSTP (channel 5) will tell you about a new poll in the Third district congressional race.
What they probably won't tell you are the details that call into question the integrity of the station's entire news-gathering operation.
A SurveyUSA poll done for KSTP will show Republican Erik Paulsen leading by 5 points, with a margin of error of about 5 points. According to sources, the poll does not take any account whatsoever of same-day registrations, which is a big deal -- assuming 2004 turnout models, same-day registrations will account for around 18% of total turnout. Assuming even greater excitement for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama in the suburbs, that number very well could be higher than 18% -- that is a potentially HUGE error in SurveyUSA's methodology.
However, the issue with KSTP is a little more nefarious -- according to sources, they pre-released the poll results to Paulsen's campaign ahead of time, and not to the campaign of Democratic candidate Ashwin Madia. The Madia campaign had to call the station directly to get the results after finding out that they had already been given to Paulsen. This is a HUGE error in judgment at KSTP, and deserves all the negative attention it should and will receive.
I haven't bought into the theory that since KSTP's owner, Stan Hubbard, donates mainly to Republican candidates, the station is a GOP shill. However, this sequence of events, so close to a huge election, has us wondering about the integrity of their news operation.
Bottom line: Watch for the presidential numbers in this poll. If they feel too close, they probably are, and the entire poll should be treated as crap until KSTP and SurveyUSA explain themselves.
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