My take on what to look for as tonight’s results come in …
TPM Election Central confirms that the New Hampshire attorney general will release preliminary results of probe of those Romney Mormon calls this afternoon.
So we’ve got a little more to chew on on that old favorite, the mystery anti-Mormon push polls and who did them. The new info is that the next firm up the food chain is called Moore-Information, based out of Portland, Oregon. They’re fighting the New Hampshire AG’s subpoenas. And they turn out to have at least some ties back to Romney. Back in 2006, when Romney was head of the Republican Governors Association, the great majority of FEC-reported disbursements to Moore came from contracts from the RGA.
Remember, other company already in the news, the one Moore-Information hired, Western Wats also had ties to Romney.
It’s very tenuous and could easily be coincidence. But a really unlucky one, I guess, if you’re Mitt.
Tom Edsall reports:
With his “late state strategy” slowly imploding, Rudy Giuliani now plans to campaign full-time from this Friday through next Tuesday’s primary in a last ditch drive for a face-saving showing in New Hampshire, where his chances of winning have inexorably eroded over the past four months. . . .
“There is one very good word to describe Rudy’s ‘late state’ strategy,” Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who is not affiliated with any presidential campaign, told the Huffington Post: “Implausible.” Another unaffiliated GOP pollster, Neil Newhouse, gave HuffPost his own view of Giuliani’s current status: “Almost an afterthought.”
John Weaver, the Texan who was chief strategist for John McCain, but who is now is not working for any candidate, compared Giuliani’s strategy to that of Union Civil War General George McClellan: “McClellan, a lot of song and dance, beautiful parades and bold strategies. But at the end of the day. it never amounted to anything.”
Here’s something that’s so strange and red flagish we weren’t even quite sure what to say about it or how to package it as news. This afternoon the New Hampshire AG held a press conference asking for the public’s help getting to the bottom of those anti-Mormon push poll allegations and revealing another polling firm tied to the polls. Now, the Romney campaign has responded with this statement …
“The Romney campaign had nothing to do with these alleged push polling calls. It is reckless, irresponsible and egregious for the McCain campaign to even mention the Romney campaign in relation to these calls. If they have any proof, let’s see it. If not, Senator McCain should immediately apologize for the actions of his own campaign.”
As far as I know, the McCain folks haven’t said anything about this today. So what is Romney even responding to?
Like I said, we’re not quite sure to make of this other than it’s a lot of bluster without much substance.
Late Update: Actually, it turns out that a McCain surrogate did attack Romney on this today.
If Hillary only gets a third of the vote in Iowa it’s a “resounding rejection.” If McCain gets 18% he’s a hero …
We who are about to fluff, salute you!
Late Update: Hat tip to Atrios and Media Matters.
A timely post, to be sure: Ken Baer, who will be periodically reporting on the New Hampshire primary for TPMCafe, ponders elections predictions.
The McCain camp responds on the Mormon/Romney push poll brouhaha …
U.S. Senator John McCain’s New Hampshire Vice Chair, former Congressman Chuck Douglas (R-NH), today issued the following statement on his comments regarding the New Hampshire Attorney General’s push-polling investigation:
“In the course of calling on all campaigns to fully disclose any relationship they have or do not have with Moore Information, I suggested that the Romney campaign had possibly used the poll in question to message test. It was a mistake to suggest that this opinion was anyone’s other than my own. I was speaking only for myself and not the McCain campaign and I regret any confusion my remarks caused.”