More push polling

News of pro-Huckabee push-polls have surfaced in Iowa. It seems that a pro-Huckabee independent group has started conducting calls in Iowa dissing the other GOP lead candidates.

Officials representing the Iowa campaigns of Fred Thompson, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani all said that their supporters contacted them to complain about the calls. A spokesman for Romney's campaign said they had gotten reports of calls, but did not know of anything negative being said about their candidate.

For each target, the pattern was the same -- a recorded message using voice recognition technology asked the recipient if they would participate in the caucuses, considered themselves pro-life and thought marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Then the dirt came, right after those called were asked which candidate they were backing.



For all three, the calls were phrased in the same manner: "If you knew that..."

But different candidates were targeted with different attacks.

For Thompson it was his past lobbying for an abortion rights group, his support of McCain-Feingold and that McCain-Feingold had also been known as "McCain-Feingold-Thompson."

For Giuliani, it was that he's "pro-abortion," supports civil unions and that "his police chief and business partner has been indicted" on various charges.

And for McCain, it was about his support for campaign finance reform and opposition to a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

At the end, the automated voice directed the recipient of the call to www.trusthuckabee.com

On their professionally-done site, Trust Huckabee describes itself as a "grassroots independent organization committed to educating voters to support Governor Mike Huckabee for the Republican Nomination for President of the United States" and notes that they aren't "authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee."

But they would seem to be taking a major role in Huckabee's Iowa operation. Upon clicking "Join Now," users are directed to a page meant to solicit precinct captains for the Arkansan's caucus effort.

This might cast some light on the anti-Romney calls that were being made a couple of weeks ago in New Hampshire and Iowa. At the time I thought that the calls were probably being made by some independent group. The Trust Huckabee group fits the bill.