Push polls in MS judicial races

The judicial races are getting very nasty in the last few weeks before the election. According to the Clarion-Ledger, Attorney General Jim Hood is investigating bogus push polls going on around the state.

"We are looking into these sleazy, bogus calls to determine if they violate our criminal and/or civil laws," Hood said Monday. "We call on any person who has recorded one of these calls to call our office at 1-800-281-4418 or e-mail us at agjimhood.com."

Push polls pretend to be legitimate opinion polls, but they're actually nothing more than a way to spread lies or negative propaganda regarding candidates, said Joe Parker, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Some of the questions that have come up in these calls include:

In Mississippi, third parties appear to be behind these push polls. One push poll is aimed at Supreme Court candidate Jim Kitchens, who is running against Chief Justice Jim Smith.

One push poll alleged in questions that Kitchens represented Wayne Williams, "who killed 34 black children in Atlanta."

The truth is Kitchens temporarily assisted Williams' attorney, Al Binder of Jackson, after Binder became ill. Although Williams was a suspect in dozens of killings, his convictions came in the slayings of two adults.


Hynum said when he was called, he was asked questions such as these: "Would the fact that Randy Pierce is an experienced chancery judge who loves the Lord make you more likely or less likely to vote for him?"

"Would the fact that Oliver Diaz voted to overturn the conviction of a man who raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl make you more likely or less likely to vote for him?"

As the article points highlights, the issue is with the third party campaigns entering the races.

Third-party influence in Mississippi's judicial races began in 2000 when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pumped about $1 million into ads designed to unseat certain justices.

Diaz said he wishes judicial candidates could band together and say they weren't going to tolerate third parties injecting themselves into these races.

We've got to make decisions for ourselves. Do we want the U.S. Chamber to pick our elected officials, or will we stand up to them in November?