Jewish voters in Michigan and several other states have recently been the target of “push polls” designed to pass along false or misleading information about Barack Obama.

A push poll is defined by Wikipedia as “a form of telemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as a poll.” Potential voters are called and asked if they would answer questions about their political views. The first few questions are generally legitimate but then they begin to receive questions that take this form:

“Would you be more or less likely to vote for Candidate X if you knew (fill in the blank)?”

The blank is then filled in with an allegation, usually false or misleading, that would likely cause the voter to think negatively about the candidate they’re being asked about. Thus, push polls are a way of putting out negative information about an opposition candidate without taking credit for making the allegation, planting seeds of doubt in the minds of voters without actually claiming that the allegation is true.

Politico documents a number of reports coming in from several key swing states of Jewish voters receiving such calls regarding Barack Obama. The calls began like a normal poll, then moved into push-polling questions that might make Jewish voters wary of Obama if the allegations were true. The calls came from a New York company called Central Marketing, Inc., which has a history of such practices.

One recipient of the call was Jonathan Cohn, an editor of the New Republic who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich. He thought it was just a regular political poll at first but he thought it would be interesting to readers if he took notes on exactly what was asked. But as the conversation went on, he began to suspect that this was not just your typical political survey. Especially when the caller got to a set of questions where he was asked if it would influence his vote if he found out that:

Obama has had a decade-long relationship with pro-Palestinian leaders in Chicago?

The leader of Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, expressed support for Obama and his hope for Obama’s victory?

The church Barack Obama has attended is known for its anti-Israel and anti-American remarks?

Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israel national security adviser is one of Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers?

Barack Obama was the member of a board (sic) that funded a pro-Palestinian charitable organization?

Barack Obama called for holding a summit of Muslim nations excluding Israel if elected president?

Cohn told the Michigan Messenger: “I can’t be absolutely certain of the intent. It may have been an effort to test some negative messages or to present some pieces of information without any context to scare Jewish voters. It was pretty straightforward until they got to those questions at the end that were much more complicated, and there seemed to be a lot of effort put into presenting information that seemed designed to put the thought in your heads that Obama is scary. And this company seems to have a reputation for this.”

Ben Smith at Politico later reported that the calls were ordered by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). The RJC denied that this was a push poll, telling Smith that they only intended to find out how “a number of factual issues that have been reported on in the press and are policy positions” might be “resonating in the Jewish community.” Other Jewish organizations disagree. Mik Moore of the Jewish Council for Education and Research told Smith:

“If the RJC is responsible for these calls, which are designed to frighten Jews and sow mistrust, they have forfeited their place at the Jewish table. It is incumbent upon the McCain campaign to speak out forcefully against this and ongoing efforts by his supporters to scare Jews into supporting his candidacy.”

Ironically, John McCain was the victim of perhaps the most infamous example of push polling in our history. During the 2000 election, immediately before the South Carolina Republican primary, groups close to the Bush campaign began calling voters in that state and asking them if it would make them less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered a biracial child. McCain has an adopted daughter from Bangladesh who sometimes appeared with him during the campaign, which would lead credence to this notion.

This was widely viewed as an attempt by the Bush campaign to use a blatantly racist appeal to slow down McCain’s momentum after his surprise win in the New Hampshire primary. ABC News recently reported that McCain has hired Tucker Eskew, the spokesman for Bush’s 2000 South Carolina campaign, who was involved in producing and defending that push poll.