Blogger in contact with Western Wats resigns from Romney campaign

November 21, 2007 – 2:52 pm

UPDATE: Justin Hart corrects me that he resigned last night before going on the Hugh Hewitt show. The email that he sent me was dated later in the evening, but contained confirmation from earlier in the evening. I should have read more carefully.

Justin Hart has notified me that he has resigned from his position as a Vice Chair of the Romney campaign’s Faith and Values Steering Committee after I challenged himfor not disclosing that he was an official in the Romney campaign.

Justin had been, until today, the only person who Western Wats would speak with. This afternoon Liz Mair wrote about a discussion she had with Jeffery Welch, a senior Western Wats executive and Romney donor.

He appears to have resigned soon after contacting the Romney Iowa staffers who the Romney campaign has now admitted to misrepresenting to the press.

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Iowa Romney staff/’voters’ change story

November 21, 2007 – 11:58 am

UPDATE: Justin Hart has clarified with me that he has resigned from the Romney campaign’s Faith and Values Steering Committee.

More facts emerge that further raise questions about the Mitt Romney Phone Scandal phone calls placed to two Iowan supporters of Mitt Romney, Marshan Roth and Rose Kramer.

They both told reporters that they received phone calls on Wednesday of last week. Marshan Roth told the Salt Lake Tribune that she "got a call on Wednesday night." Rose Kramer told Dave Lightman from McClatchy that she was "waiting for the TV show ‘House’ to start at 8 p.m. Tuesday when a pollster called." However, she then told Reid Wilson from RCP that "she received around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday."

Then they told blogger Justin Hart, an official in the Romney campaign who does not disclose that in his posts, that they had received calls on Tuesday. He posted statements in the comments of a Redstate post about these conversations.

Regarding Rose Kramer:

She confirmed:

* She received the call on Tuesday
* She spoke to the East Iowa Field Director
* The Romney camp asked her if she was willing to talk to the press
* The press called her

Regarding Marshan Roth:

Confirmed the same details that I asked Rose. (got called Tuesday, told Romney folks about it, Romney folks called back to have her talk to the press, etc…)

So let’s be clear. Roth and Kramer, both Romney staffers, told the Romney campaign that they got the calls on Tuesday, but they told the press Wednesday. Kramer has told both stories.

One of these is false.

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Hemingway: Questions need to be answered

November 21, 2007 – 8:56 am

Mark Hemingway, the NRO reporter who broke the story about all the connections between Mitt Romney and Western Wats responds to Target Points denial.

He starts with some questions that are as-yet-unanswered:

  • Are you still working with Western Wats?
  • When was the last time they worked for you?
  • What kind of work did they do for you?
  • Did Western Wats work on any pro-Romney projects with you?
  • Why were you involved with a firm that has been repeatedly accused of push polling?
  • Why did you not issue a statement clarifying your involvement with the firm right when the story broke?

Target Point has already refused to answer them:

I asked these questions over the phone, and they refused to comment on any of the specifics beyond the statement they issued yesterday. "We put out a statement yesterday that made it clear we had nothing to do with these calls. We’re not going to get into how we run our business," their spokesman said. …

Hemingway also points out how important it is to drill down on this:

So it all comes down to whether or not you think that even posing the question about whether the Romney campaign could have been involved in the calls is somehow inappropriate. I don’t think it is. The skulduggery of Presidential politics is such that this kind speculation isn’t out of bounds for any candidate, including Romney. (As proof of this, one of Mitt’s official bloggers Justin Hart at mymanmitt.com admits he was prepared to run with a story headlined "Gage Firm: We Did It. Don’t Blame Romney.") And I did not merely speculate — I provided new evidence and I also provided pro-Romney balance as well. I am only invested in determining who made the calls, not in proving Romney was behind them.

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‘Voters’ Who Broke Story on Romney Calls On Romney Payroll

November 20, 2007 – 11:50 pm

I thought that I was going to have a nice quiet Thanksgiving. Perhaps not.

Erick Erickson at Redstate (disclosure I too contribute to Redstate) has uncovered some more information on the Mitt Romney phone scandal. Leon Wolf, another Redstate contributor who today endorsed Mitt Romney, also pointed out that this happened previously (described then) when Leon was on the Brownback campaign.

The basic facts are that a Romney staffer, Marshan Roth contacted the Salt Lake Tribune, identified herself as "leaning towards Romney", and told her story:

Marshan Roth, of Fairfield, Iowa, got a call on Wednesday night. It started out like a regular poll, she says, but then asked positive questions about Sen. John McCain and delved into disparaging things about Romney. She was asked whether she knew that Mormons have ‘baptized thousands of dead people’ and that the Book of Mormon was more important than the Bible to Mormons. ‘It was sick. It really was. It made me just furious,’ says Roth, who is leaning toward backing Romney. ‘If you didn’t know enough about McCain, you’d think he was the white knight coming in on his charger saving the world and that Mitt Romney was tantamount to the devil

Erick points out that Roth receives $500/month from the Romney campaign.

Similarly, Rose Kramer, another Romney staffer who describes herself as "a supporter," told a McClatchy reporter her story:

Rose Kramer was at her Dubuque, Iowa, home, waiting for the TV show ‘House’ to start at 8 p.m. Tuesday when a pollster called and started asking her about John McCain. After a few polite questions, the caller started saying unflattering things about Mitt Romney. Kramer, a Romney supporter, got so angry that she missed the opening of her show. ‘I was still ranting at my husband,’ she said.

Rose isn’t just a supporter. She is a staffer, making $1,000/month. She is also a co-chair of Romney’s Iowa Faith & Values Steering Committee.

It doesn’t stop there. Rose told a different story to Real Clear Politics:

Rose Kramer, an Iowa voter who backs Romney, told Politics Nation the call, which she received around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, began with typical screening questions on whether she planned to caucus and if she had caucused before. After an initial ballot test — on which she says Romney’s name was listed last — the pollster offered five questions about John McCain, all of which she characterized as ‘glowing.’ Kramer said she asked the caller whether he was working for a campaign; he said no, his was an independent research group.

First, when Rose talked to McClatchy, it was Tuesday 8pm. With Real Clear Politics, it was 8:30 on Wednesday. She lied to one of the reporters.

Second, in both (all three?) cases, the Romney staffers highlighted the McCain questions. It seems to me that the Romney campaign was deliberately pushing the McCain angle.

Third, either the staffers didn’t disclose their relationship to the reporters or the reporters didn’t disclose it in their stories. My money is on the staffers, something that, as Leon pointed out before, Romney consultants in Iowa have done in the past.

This raises several questions:

First, is there any evidence that this poll contacted anyone in Iowa who was not a Romney staffer or supporter? If not, is there any evidence that the calls actually occurred? Could this be a story manufactured by the Romney campaign? After all, Western Wats only seems to talk through another Romney official, Justin Hart.

Second, were they directed by either Boston or Des Moines to deliver these messages? If so, were they told to hide their relationship with the Romney campaign?

Is Romney auditioning for FEMA Administrator?

UPDATE: Jonathan Martin had reported a non-Romney supporting phone call recipient.

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NRO’s Hemingway doesn’t buy Gage response

November 20, 2007 – 1:38 am

He says:

I’ve read TargetPoint’s response numerous times and it doesn‘t invalidate my story or address the specific nature of their relationship with the firm that allegedly made anti-Mormon calls against Romney. I’ll report more as I ask more questions.

I think that’s right. Gage managed to combine bluster and irrelevance. As far as I could tell, there was only one sentence of substance, and even that was non-responsive to the question.

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Gage responds

November 19, 2007 – 5:07 pm

Alex Gage responded with a Letter to the Editor at NRO:

Today’s unfortunate article written by Mark Hemingway concerning allegations over anti-Romney push-polling that suggests that TargetPoint Consulting was somehow involved is both inaccurate and inexcusable.

To set the record straight: TargetPoint Consulting has absolutely nothing to do with the calls in question. To be even clearer: TargetPoint Consulting has NEVER and will NEVER conduct a push-poll. TargetPoint is in the business of promoting Governor Romney, not manufacturing fantasy plots that involve smearing him.

It is very disappointing that the person who wrote this piece included the bizarre fabrication that perhaps the Romney campaign push-polled itself. As “proof,” the author offered up the supposed “fact” that TargetPoint Consulting may have in the past used Western Wats to conduct telephone interviews and concluding: “If there is a relationship between the two firms, then Alex Gage and TargetPoint should immediately clarify the extent and nature of the work that it has contracted out to Western Wats to end speculation and exonerate Romney.”

Neither I nor TargetPoint was contacted before publication of this piece. Not by email. Not by voice mail. If the person representing National Review had bothered to take this most basic journalistic step, we would have told him on the record that TargetPoint Consulting had nothing to do with this and that his theory was entirely erroneous and absent any merit. The truth would have dulled the sensationalism considerably – probably to the point that responsibility would have dictated not publishing it at all.

I am not sure what, if any, motives the author may have, but now that it has been published, this piece has unfairly smeared me, my firm and the Romney campaign.

We can only hope in the future that National Review will be more consistently involved in reporting the news, and not taking off on detours into the fever-swamps of loony conspiracies. If there is any mystery to be uncovered regarding these polls, it will be by real reporting and not irresponsible speculation that tramples the good names of reputable pollsters and polling firms.

Sincerely,

Alex Gage
TargetPoint Consulting
Alexandria, Va.

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Kevin Madden’s backtracking

November 19, 2007 – 1:41 pm

I noted that Kevin Madden’s most recent denial is a clear non-denial. Or rather it is not responsive in some way. Let’s drill down on his statements to see just how much the Romney campaign has backtracked in the last couple of days:

He started with a "[flat]" denial of being involved "at all," to the Politico:

"That’s preposterous," shot back Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. Asked if they were involved at all, Madden flatly said "no."

This then became a sort of free floating blanket "[rejection]" of various  "insinuation{s}" that they would "support" the calls, to the Salt Lake Tribune:

"Emphatically, I reject any insinuation that we would support phone calls attacking our own campaign," said Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden. "That’s underscored by the fact that we asked the New Hampshire attorney general to investigate the calls. As the campaign being targeted, we have the most important interest in finding out who is responsible."

Then that the calls were "tied" to the campaign to HuffPo:

Asked about these reports, Kevin Madden Romney’s spokesperson responded: "Citizens have a right to donate, but we would reject outright any insinuation that these [calls] are tied to this campaign."

Then finally last night with NRO, that the campaign would be "involved,"

"I would reject outright any insinuation that our campaign would be involved with making calls against our own candidate," Romney spokesman told NRO Sunday night in response to the connections."

You can smell the rubber of the backtracking.

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The right questions to ask

November 19, 2007 – 1:14 pm

According to Tom Bevan at RCP, Kevin Madden has issued a denial. The denial however is of the non-denial denial subspecies.

Let me be perfectly clear: our campaign was not and is not involved with any efforts to engage in alleged push polling calls against our own candidate. …

Again, our campaign is not involved with efforts against our own candidate, and I reject outright even the slightest insinuation to the contrary.

The Hemingway piece made a mistake. It called these push polls. As Mark Blumenthal and Chuck Todd have made perfectly clear, these are not push polls. Maybe they are legitimate survey research. Maybe they are research gone awry. Perhaps even deliberately awry.

The actual denial leaves open the possibility that these were survey questions by the Romney campaign.  Those are neither "push polling calls" or "against our own candidate."

The right question for reporters to ask, and the question that the Romney campaign is avoiding answering is this:

Was the Romney campaign, Target Point, or any of their vendors placing phone calls — survey research, push polls, or otherwise — in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina in the last three weeks that mentioned the word ‘Mormon’?  If so, please release the text of the script.

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NRO: Did Romney Push Poll Himself?

November 19, 2007 – 8:24 am

I think that this story will dominate the GOP 2008 race today.

It suggests that Alex Gage, who Chris Cilliza calls part of the Romney "inner circle," is behind the push polls.

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Western Wats denies Romney connection … through Romney campaign?

November 18, 2007 – 4:15 pm

Justin Hart, blogger at MyManMitt and Race42008, is the only person who seems to be in contact with people inside Western Wats. He has defended Western Wats’ denials that this whole thing is associated with the Mitt Romney campaign here, here, and here.

Of course, Justin isn’t just a blogger. He isn’t just a pro-Romney blogger. He is volunteer leadership in the Romney campaign:

The Romney For President National Faith And Values Steering Committee Vice-Chairs:  

- Justin Hart, Vice President of Communications, Lighted Candle Society

So let’s get this straight. Western Wats denies a connection to the Romney campaign by issuing statements and denials through officials of the Romney campaign?

Come on.

UPDATE: Justin has backtracked. Now he says:

I had previously asked my source about the notion that Romney is behind the poll.  He said it was “nonsense”.  I should clarify that this is his opinion.  From my conversations I gather that he does not know exactly who is behind the survey but thinks that a Romney motive is “ridiculous”.  Again, he is understandably tight lipped on all this.  I don’t know how much he does know.

So now they only think. Of course this same guy who has seen the survey and says that it isn’t that bad doesn’t know on whose behalf the questions were asked.

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