Mitch Goldstone had a letter to the Editor in the Irvine World News yesterday and right wing blogger G. Allan Bartlett picked up the item.
The Goldstone letter referred to an exit poll from a recent Irvine Chamber candidates forum that showed that Irvine Chamber members supported John Duong for Mayor with a 60-38 percent ratio (note the word percent). Shea and Mavity also defeated Kang and Gaido. Mitch elluded to the Krom/Kang/Gaido ticket as akin to the Krispy Kreme franchise and how once people got away from the sugary sweet glaze they abandoned the donut shop and its sales and market value went down (I thought it was the low carb diets).
Turns out Mitch sugarcoated the poll himself.
Per the Chamber, the poll consisted of about 46-48 people and the Chamber could not verify how many members were also Irvine residents and voters. Duong got a 28-18 edge over Krom and Shea picked up 33 votes. So Mitch, by reporting the percentage and not the total, is misleading IWN readers into thinking this candidate Duong is going to roll on election day.
It’s a head scratcher, because the Irvine Chamber (and just about every other small business advocacy group and major newspaper) opposes Prop 90, but the Pro-Prop 90 team won going away….something is rotten in Denmark.
And as I started writing this, I got a call with a tip.
Someone there saw someone collect ballots for the exit poll from the empty seats and bring them over to a table with supporters and candidates for Team Irvine (Duong, Shea, and Mavity). I asked if it was one of the candidates and they wouldn’t answer. So I don’t know who, but there was a bit of snickering going on at the table.
“What happened next?” I asked.
“Vote early and often,” they said. My source is very reliable.
How Junior High can you go here?
So Mitch and Allan, when you read this, please note you both cite an exit poll that is too small to be statsitically valid and your side allegedly stuffed the ballot box to produce such a one sided result.
To hype this result is dishonest at best and pathethic at worst.