Push Polling Spousal Rape in LD 28 Senate Primary Race

It’s impossible at this point to definitively point a finger for the Spousal Rape law push polling in LD 28 (Download rape_push_poll.wav), but I certainly hope that the Democratic party will thoroughly investigate the matter, bringing in legal authorities if warranted. I doubt this operation has any direct connection to Aboud’s campaign. Paula Aboud is not a stupid woman; there is no way she would do anything as rash and foolish as to use Clean Elections money for such a purpose, if only because she would be sure to be caught.

Downing, even in his private emails immediately following his reciept of one of these calls, does not accuse Aboud of being responsible, but he does point out that Aboud is the obvious beneficiary of the operation (and pointing this out cannot be honestly described as a smear tactic, as I have heard some Aboud supporters contend). It is an entirely unobjectionable statement. But regardless of who is responsible for this operation, and regardless of the outcome of the primary, the voters of the district deserve to know who is behind this chicanery. If this operation had no connection to Aboud’s campaign, the voters have strong interest in knowing that, too.

Paula Aboud has denied any knowledge of the push poll to me personally, and I’m certainly willing to give her every benefit of the doubt, but it should be perfectly clear both to her and her supporters that those who support her candidacy are the natural and obvious suspects here, given that there is no Republican opposition in this race. Nobody else has so clear and direct an interest in the race to spend the money such a project takes.

Few Democrats are likely to be apply as high a burden of proof as I. Many I have spoken to have already condemned Aboud out of hand. Combined with Paula’s misleading mailer, many high-frequency voters are primed to believe that any appearance of impropriety is, in fact, an impropriety.

Therefore, it serves Aboud’s interest, even more than Downing’s, to get to the bottom of this matter, and quickly. Aboud’s reputation is on the line, as is her political future, regardless of how this primary turns out. There is nobody to whom it is more critical that solid proof of responsibility for this push poll is found than Paula Aboud.

Even if this is an independent effort on Aboud’s behalf of which she had no knowledge, the responsible party needs to be identified and condemned. Democrats using such techniques need to be rejected and chastised even more firmly than Republicans: everyone knows the Republicans play in the dirty end of the pool, Democrats who join them there are squandering a valuable electoral asset that belongs to the entire party and every Democratic candidate. Anyone who is interested in Democratic electoral succuess should be very anxious to get to the bottom of this push poll, as well as the one in the CD 8 primary.

If, for some reason that remains quite obscure to me, this sort of grossly unfair and malicious interference with our party primary is coming from the Republican side of the aisle, this is also something that it is critical for the party to determine, so that suspicion does not linger around any of our candidates, officials, or allies.