by Mark Hosenball on January 9, 2008 - Newsweek
The statements below are from a Newsweek article regarding ccAdvertising's work with Common Sense Issues on behalf of Mike Huckabee.
"Common Sense Issues is a tax-exempt group registered in Delaware whose organizers have acknowledged the use of controversial telephone polling tactics to promote Huckabee's presidential bid"Patrick Davis, a former national Republican Party staffer who serves as executive director for the group, defended its telephone tactics, in which an automated voice provides negative information to voters about rival candidates. In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, Davis insisted, 'Candidates that cry foul on these personalized educational artificial-intelligence calls are usually candidates who take one stand on an issue in front of one audience and a different stand on the same issue in front of a different audience. We will admit, in those cases, that sometimes the truth hurts.'"
"In its FEC filing Common Sense Issues disclosed that it had spent much of its contributions on what were described as pro-Huckabee "GOTV"—get out the vote—efforts. Some of the money was paid to an advertising agency and a T-shirt manufacturer. The nonprofit also reported that it had paid out more than $4,000 on Jan. 2, 2008—the day before the Iowa caucuses—to a suburban Washington, D.C., firm called [cc]Advertising, whose Web site says it specializes in conducting marketing and political surveys using automated calling systems equipped with voice-recognition software."
"Harold (Zeke) Swift, the Cincinnati-based president of Common Sense Issues, confirmed to NEWSWEEK that the group hired CC Advertising to make informational calls to prospective voters using what he described as "artificial-intelligence dialogue." He also confirmed that these calls involved the machine's asking voters questions about their views on issues, and, depending upon how they responded to the machine, providing them with information on rival candidates' positions."
"Supporters of Huckabee's major rivals—including Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain—have complained that the automated calls amounted to negative "push-polling." If the people who were called gave responses related to his foes, Huckabee's opponents complained, the robo-call machines gave out information that the rival candidates considered to be negative toward them."
"In his e-mail to NEWSWEEK, Davis, Common Sense's executive director, wrote, 'The fact is that many of Huckabee's presidential rivals tried to hire our phone vendor, [cc]Advertising, because of their one-of-a-kind technology that uses artificial intelligence to enable personalized conversations with citizens on issues. Since Common Sense Issues secured exclusive access and the other campaigns are blocked, it is not surprising that they would complain.' He added, 'Please note that not a single campaign has said that the information in our phone calls is not factual—just that they don't like it.'"
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