Patrick Grassroots Army Produces Smoking Gun

HOUSTON – Dan Patrick, Texas State Senator and authentic conservative candidate for Lieutenant Governor, mobilized his grassroots army last night to produce an audiotape of a David Dewhurst push poll.  Outraged Patrick supporters responded immediately.

“Last night, the Campaign was notified that a particularly offensive push poll was being broadcast to voters all across Texas,” said Allen Blakemore, Patrick Campaign Senior Strategist.  “We posted to social media that we were offering a $1,000 reward to the first person to deliver a usable audio recording of the call.

“There was a winner last night who is being sent a check via overnight mail.  But the voters of Texas were the losers.  David Dewhurst has robbed us of any decency in this campaign.

“In less than an hour we had a flood of copies of the push poll and an avalanche of calls, emails, and social media postings from angry Texans, outraged at the Dewhurst Campaign’s latest dirty trick.

“In Senator Patrick’s statement to the media last night, he said he would release a copy of the script.  After listening to the recordings, he has decided against it.  It’s too disgusting to repeat.  David Dewhurst has crossed every boundary of decency in this campaign.  His appalling behavior is beyond belief.

“The calls directly mentioned Patrick’s leaked medical records, and the litany of other claims previously made by the Dewhurst Campaign.

“The automated push poll listed a series of salacious statements followed by ‘does knowing these facts make you less likely to vote for Dan Patrick?’  The call included a fake disclaimer, citing the name of an organization that is not registered with the Texas Ethics Commission, and a mismatched caller-ID and disclaimer phone number.

“David Dewhurst should halt his horrendous conduct and apologize to the voters of Texas and to Dan Patrick.”

The American Association for Public Opinion Research defines a “push poll” as a form of negative campaigning that is disguised as a political poll. “Push polls” are actually political telemarketing – telephone calls disguised as research that aim to persuade large numbers of voters and affect election outcomes, rather than measure opinions.