Ron Williams, Dupe or Fraud?

Filed in National by on July 30, 2008

When Ron Williams wrote, “I have the latest in-house Democratic Party poll…” it was either a flat out lie or he was played for a sucker by Vince D’Anna.

As more water spills over Williams’ half-assed dam of lies, we know know that the poll was not recent as Williams suggests with his use of “latest” and it was in no way a “in-house Democratic Party poll.”

Rather, it was commissioned by Tom Gordon and Karen Hartley Nagle which Al Mascitti touches on  in the comments of a previous thread.   The orginal purpose of the poll, as confirmed by an source close to D’Anna,  was to offer some sort of numbers to Washington contributors.

In an effort to boost Carney and get some positive coverage after a rough week, D’Anna either told Williams that it was an “in-house” poll an assertion that Williams never questioned – or Williams knew from the start it was pure bullshit.   Either way – Williams has allowed the News Journal editorial page to be used in a way that undercuts what little integrity the paper has.

He needs a pink slip.

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Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (12)

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  1. cassandra m says:

    You know, I just went back and read both editorials and wonder why he did not mention KHN numbers (esp since she is one of the originators).

    Williams is an odd duck — he wrote an editorial castigating the NCC Council for chastising Paul Clark’s shenanigans. But if Clark’s CoI issues had gotten more critical, you know he would be flaming away at the NCC for standing by and doing nothing.

  2. Al Mascitti says:

    A correction: The one we discussed today was for Gordon. He’s working on something separate now for Hartley-Nagle.

  3. cassandra m says:

    I take back my question, then…

  4. KHN has commissioned a statewide poll but it contains many of the same data points that some of these other polls contained. I wonder how many of the disparate poll data is being analysed together and if that was part of the Carney/Markell analysis given by Williams.

    D’anna couched it as an in-house DEM poll because it was by and for a few DEM candidates. Candidates that the party bosses are pretty fussy with…..huh Coons’ fans.

    I wonder if that nastily worded poll that Basiouny tacked onto the end of her Gordon piece was paid for in any way by the Democratic party bosses? They sure are playing favorites in this primary season. Chris Coons has the party bosses up his butt, just like Carney.

    I think this is quite a primary year with so many cross-race loyalties stepping all over each other’s seeming intergrity.

  5. jason330 says:

    Al – D’anna was playing you. He did a KHN poll in June. I guess it is possible that he also did a stand alone Gordon poll but I doubt it.

    Nancy,

    I think this is quite a primary year with so many cross-race loyalties stepping all over each other’s seeming intergrity.

    You got that right.

  6. nemski says:

    Let me get something straight.

    The poll was financed by the dark side.
    The poll is being passed off as a Party poll.
    The poll shows Carney winning.
    The poll is good for Markell.

    Did I miss anything?

  7. The June polling done was started late and ran into the 4th of July weekend so the data was dumped. Her poll just got underway again within the last two weeks and wrapped up yesterday.

    The June poll that Gordon did showed very favorably for Gordon in as far as the negatives for Coons, the unknowns and undecideds.

    Gordon did an additional poll that just wrapped up last week.

    Vince is as likely as anyone to play me, especially since he is also Paul Clark’s campaign manager. But he worked for Biden for twenty years and is a well-respected surveyor.

    I have every confidence in this data. I do think that the Markell data was done before much of his teevee exposure and before any of his ad-gate boost.
    And, as you pointed out, a true reading of the data includes the undecided and unknown factors which may swing things to Markell somewhat. Overall, they are both very popular and most people weren’t sure who they’d vote for.

  8. TommyWonk says:

    I find the numbers puzzling. I’ve never seen poll results like this for a high profile race.

    31 to 14 are low numbers, especially for a poll with a likely voter screen. I understand that last year, Carney’s pollster had him up by ten points with numbers in the mid 30s for Carney and the mid 20s for Markell.

    So after an entire year of campaigning, and a likely voter screen, the decideds go down? The results just strike me as implausible. And from what I’ve heard, the methodology was somewhat less than rigorous.

  9. jason330 says:

    Nemski,

    The poll is being passed off as a Party poll.

    That is a big one for me. Williams has some explaining to do.

  10. nemski says:

    Jason, have you sent one of your delightful emails to Mr. Williams yet? 🙂

  11. So after an entire year of campaigning, and a likely voter screen, the decideds go down? The results just strike me as implausible. And from what I’ve heard, the methodology was somewhat less than rigorous.
    *
    pray tell?