On Monday, 16th Congressional District candidate Evan Low announced he’d added the endorsement of U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler to a tally that already includes former Los Gatos mayors Marcia Jensen, Marico Sayoc and Rob Rennie.
This demonstrated serious momentum, especially considering opponent Joe Simitian previously told the Los Gatan that he’d already secured the support of Rennie.
And just days after former Google policy-crafter Ahmed Mostafa decried a poll that mixed his name up with that of a convicted rapist (Ahmad Moustafa), Rishi Kumar, the runner-up in the previous contest for the seat, was questioning why he’d been left off a different survey.
Kumar is crying foul over a CaliforniaVoices.org poll hosted at sextantstrategies.qualtrics.com, which, on top of Simitian, Low and “Small Businessperson/Educator” (and former San Jose mayor) Sam Liccardo, also included “Councilmember/Educator/Parent” Julie Lythcott-Haimes, “Financial Services VP” Peter Ohtaki, “Technology Entrepreneur/Father” Peter Dixon and “Small Business Owner” Karl Ryan.
The poll omitted Kumar, despite the fact that in the previous contest against longtime Congresswoman Anna Eshoo he got 42% of the vote (though just 16% in the primary).
In a press release, Kumar noted just how effusively the CaliforniaVoices.org poll gushed over current county supervisor Simitian.
‘These types polling are just playing mind games’
—Rishi Kumar, 16th District candidate
“Joe Simitian has an unmatched record of solving problems and getting results at every level of government from school board to city council to Board of Supervisors and both the State Assembly and the Senate,” one question reads, continuing, “Known as one of most forceful leaders on the Peninsula, his list of accomplishments range from passing laws that dramatically accelerated California’s shift toward renewable energy to local achievements like saving 400 Santa Clara County mobile home tenants from eviction.”
However, the poll used positive language to frame a question about Liccardo (it states he “embraced bold solutions to solve problems” and “reduced homelessness by rehabilitating run-down motels), Lythcott-Haimes (a Palo Alto City Councilwoman who is a former Stanford Dean “with a best-seller documenting her experiences as a biracial America”), Dixon (the poll opted to highlight that he’d worked under Hillary Clinton “in the Obama State Department,” and “saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan”) and Low (“Evan has been a strong advocate for the technology industry” and is “a leader on a diverse range of issues.”)
Candidates Joby Bernstein and Greg Tanaka aren’t included in the poll, either.
A screenshot provided to the Los Gatan by Kumar shows at least one person was served with additional questions about Simitian’s responsiveness to constituents, the extent to which he respects the average voter compared to “Tech CEOs,” and his approach to cultural issues, homelessness and climate change—among other issues.
Kumar, who says his team has raised—and spent—$1.4 million and knocked on 150,000 doors, trashed the poll as rubbish.
“These types of polling are just playing games—and it’s mind games,” he said. “We are running a pretty hard campaign to bring ethics back in politics.”
However, Kumar stopped short of making any direct accusations.
“We have not pointed to the source of the polling, except for the polling company,” he said. “We let people conclude.”
CaliforniaVoices.org’s homepage was set as “suspendedpage.cgi” on Tuesday.
The Los Gatan reached Sextant Strategies & Research pollster Jonathan Brown by phone on Tuesday afternoon.
He declined to comment on the poll.
Brown said the website was offline because of a technical issue.
“I changed banks and the autopay function to renew my hosting account was not updated,” he said. “Thanks for letting me know it was down.”
John Whitehurst, a partner at BMWL Public Affairs serving as a political consultant for Simitian, denied any connection to the survey.
“This has got nothing to do with our campaign,” he said. “He’s firing a blank.”
Whitehurst, who worked on the “Gary Hart for President” campaign in 1984, said Simitian’s pollster is Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3).
“This is a super short election,” he said, pointing to the political frenzy set off by Eshoo’s recent announcement she wouldn’t be running again. “Everyone is scrambling.”
