Surveyor gets an earful from Schroeder

This week Idaho State Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, got a phone call from a telemarketer asking him how he felt about his state senator’s voting record on tax issues.

Identifying himself as the very same senator as the focus of the survey, Schroeder listened to the first two questions regarding sales and gas tax increases without complaint.

But when he heard the third question, which asked how he would feel if he knew Schroeder “voted to allow huge increases in property taxes on local families,” he told the caller the question was a gross distortion of his record. “Then I asked, ‘Are you aware you are breaking state law?’ ” he said.

Citing an Idaho law that requires such a survey to identify the person or political group paying for it, Schroeder has issued a public statement condemning the poll and its sponsors. Because the questions are designed to create a negative impression of the senator just before he faces newcomer Gregg Vance in the primary election next week, the survey could be considered a “push poll” or “persuasive poll,” said Schroeder. Through polls like these, “unscrupulous people can spread lies quickly at the last minute and steal an election,” he said in his public statement.

The out-of-state telemarketing company that made the calls to Schroeder and others in Latah County, Precision of Iowa, declined to answer questions about the poll or the poll script. But Idahoans for Tax Reform took credit for the survey and denied any illegalities.

“I don’t even think this is one of those persuasive calls,” said Laird Maxwell, chairman of the tax reform political action committee. He said his intent with the survey was to gauge voter sentiment on Schroeder’s tax record.

“We’ve got an interesting candidates’ race up there,” Maxwell said from Boise. “You’ve got a guy who is conservative and then you’ve got Gary Schroeder who is a liberal in all this,” he said. Maxwell noted that while Schroeder voted for every single tax cut, he also, like many others in the Legislature, voted in favor of increases in state spending, contributing to the state’s recent budget crisis.

In a copy of the script for the survey provided by Idahoans for Tax Reform, the caller is supposed to identify himself by saying “Hi this is ____ from Idahoans for Tax Reform.”

Schroeder said the man who called him never identified who commissioned the poll. He said he thinks the survey is being paid for by supporters of his opponent Gregg Vance, people from Southern Idaho who want to see him out of office and away from his position of influence as the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

“He can suggest what he wants,” said Maxwell, adding that his group has neither financially backed nor publicly endorsed Vance, a farmer and Moscow property manager and owner. “Though, if he wants my endorsement, he’s more than welcome to have it.”

The Vance camp denies any connection to the phone survey. “It certainly didn’t come from us,” said Vance’s wife Mindy, who is also campaign treasurer. “Though we’re not surprised there are other groups out there who think Schroeder’s voting record on taxes is pathetic.”

While the poll script suggests Schroeder “has voted to allow huge increases in property taxes on local families,” Schroeder said the opposite is true. According to his campaign, he voted for the largest cut in property taxes in state history when he supported the state taking up a greater share of school tax assessments.

Maxwell said he hasn’t commissioned any other polls elsewhere in the state in advance of next week’s primary. “Not right now,” he said. “I may. Different races require different things.” He also declined to say how many people in Latah County were called or how much his group paid for the survey. “That’s all strategy,” he said.