Did Firedoglake take out Vic Snyder?
Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) announced his retirement today, mixed–but mostly dire–news for Democrats, who were hopeful that he could hold on and defeat his likely, scandal-tainted GOP opponent Tim Griffin. One of the possible reasons for the retirement? A poll conducted by SurveyUSA, paid for by the progressive blog Firedoglake, which tested negative messages about the health care reform bill and whether it made voters sour on Snyder. A sample question:
Under one proposal, if a person does not carry health insurance from a private insurance company, they would be fined up to 2% of their income. Is this fair, or unfair?
The poll found that Snyder, already losing badly to Griffin, was four points further behind if he backed the bill.
The question, raised by Nate Silver and others: Is Firedoglake trying to scare vulnerable Democrats into retirement in order to kill health care reform? All indications point to "yes."
Snyder was the most liberal member of the Arkansas delegation. Snyder voted against the Iraq war, against banning gay marriage, against the partial birth abortion ban, for HCR, even for cap and trade.
His opponent is Tim Griffin.
Update [2010-1-15 21:34:14 by pontificator]: Changed title from "Push Poll" to "Attack Poll." Explanation:
I agree with Nate Silver's characterization of the poll:
The choice of the fair/unfair phrasing is also a bit unusual and some pollsters would avoid it for being emotionally loaded. This is getting pretty close to asking: "This bill would raise your taxes, dude! -- Is that fair or unfair?".
However, I also agree that it doesn't meet the Wikipedia definition of a "push poll" (or at least there's no evidence that it does).
Therefore, I changed the title to "attack poll."