Is the Tea Party Express Alaska Poll Real?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Monday, the Tea Party Express sent out an email blast touting a supposed surge by Joe Miller, the group’s preferred candidate in the Alaska Republican senate primary. Miller, the email said, was quickly narrowing the gap with incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski.

The last public poll had Murkowski crushing Miller by 32 points. But the Tea Party Express says this latest, unnamed poll in Alaska finds Miller within just 9 points a few days before the August 24 primary.

There’s one glaring problem, however: outside of the Tea Party Express email, I can’t find any evidence that the latest poll even exists. I called Miller’s campaign, and his spokesman couldn’t tell me who conducted the poll. It’s not even linked to on Miller’s own website. I would try to contact the Tea Party Express, but every link on the group’s website takes you back to the homepage where you’re asked to donate, including the link for “Contact” information.

Miller, an attorney with little name recognition, recently got the stamp of approval from former half-term Republican Gov. Sarah Palin, which may account for a jump in the polls. On Monday, he also gained the backing of former Arkansas governor and one-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, which may give him an additional boost in certain conservative circles (and, as Politico points out, it’s not often that a candidate gets an endorsement from both Palin and Huckabee). The Tea Party Express has made Miller their top priority candidate, along with Nevada candidate Sharron Angle. The group is already running ads in the state attacking “liberal” Lisa Murkowski, and have pledged to spend “hundreds of thousands of dollars” backing Miller in the race.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Tea Party Express is using this new “poll” to ramp up the fundraising push for Miller. From the email they sent out yesterday, which is also reprinted here:

During this year the Tea Party Express has helped boost a lot of conservative constitutionalists in key races across the country.

Thanks to your support that looks to be happening once again. One month ago polls showed Liberal RINO, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, with a lead of 32-points over her conservative challenger, tea party hero Joe Miller.

This past weekend we learned of a new poll of 1,223 Alaska voters that showed Joe Miller has now jumped 23-points, and now trails Sen. Murkowski by only 9%.

The election is just 15-days away (August 24th) and we have a chance to win this race and replace a Liberal U.S. Senator (Murkowski) with a conservative patriot (Joe Miller). We need your help now more than ever as we’re going to give it everything we’ve got. We’re going to launch a massive radio and TV advertising campaign but we’ve got to raise $150,000 more in the next 4 days to pay for it.

The poll could be legit, and if it is, perhaps Murkowski has something to be concerned about in the coming primary. But I’ll remain skeptical until I see some sort of evidence the poll actually exists.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate