Mystery telephone poll of voters baffles Ringwood

Saturday, July 26, 2003
By JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITER

RINGWOOD - A telephone poll of voters' opinions on local issues is not unusual in urban politics, but in a small town in upper Passaic County a recent flurry of those calls is creating a buzz.

"Some very interesting polling is being done in Ringwood," said Robin O'Hearn, director of Skylands CLEAN, the local ecology group. O'Hearn said she was astounded that her civic group was a focus of the poll conducted this week.

O'Hearn said she got so many phone calls from residents asking whether her civic organization was doing an opinion poll that she issued an e-mail alert stating that "Skylands CLEAN has not commissioned any poll."

The callers asked voters their opinion of Skylands CLEAN, what they see as major issues in town, and whether they intend to vote for Democrats or Republicans in November's municipal and county elections.

Adding to an element of mystery, Republican and Democratic activists at the local, county, and state level all say they didn't commission the poll.

"It's not the Democrats. It's not CLEAN," said Joanne Atlas, vice president of the ecology group, who is a Democratic candidate for a Borough Council seat. "This is like a new era in politics in Ringwood."

Four of the seven council seats are up for election and hotly contested. Republicans currently hold a 6-1 majority.

Mayor Jerry Holt, who heads the Republican slate in the municipal elections, said he didn't know anything about the polling. "I haven't gotten a call," Holt said Thursday. "It could be the county or state."

But Passaic County Republican and Democratic leaders said they were not doing any polling in Ringwood. State party officials said it was not part of any of their legislative campaigns.

"We're not up there polling," Richard McGrath, communications director for the state Democratic Party, said Friday. "But it is the election season and there is a lot of polling going on."

"It's not us, it must be the Democrats," said Jeannette Hoffman, executive director of the state Republican committee. But after checking around, she said no one seemed to know about polling in Ringwood.

"It's a mystery," Hoffman said.

What is known, said several residents who got the polling calls, is that the callers said they represented National Voter Research. No company with that name could be found in an Internet search.

"This is something new for Ringwood," said Ted Williamson, the borough Democratic leader.

"I'm in the dark as to who did it and why they did it."

Ringwood Republicans say phone poll is theirs

Wednesday, July 30, 2003
By JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITER

RINGWOOD - Borough Republicans are behind a mysterious phone poll that asks what residents think of a local environmental group - one of whose members is a Democratic council candidate.

"It is our poll," GOP Mayor Jerry Holt said Tuesday of the previously unidentified source of the questioning being conducted townwide.

Characterizing it as a survey of residents' concerns, Holt said he wasn't aware that the Republican municipal organization had launched the poll when, last week, he said he knew nothing of the matter. Furthermore, he said Tuesday, he didn't know that some of the questions ask for opinions of Skylands CLEAN, the environmental group.

Holt and his running mates for four council seats are being challenged by a Democratic slate that includes a leader of the environmental organization. Four of the seven council seats are up for election. Republicans hold a 6-1 majority.

Holt said he knew a survey was being developed by Councilman Scott Heck, who is the borough Republican leader.

"It was basically doing a survey on issues and strengths and weaknesses," Holt said, "to understand the issues and priorities among the residents in town." But he said he didn't know the details.

Heck was not available for comment Tuesday because of a death in his family.

Some of those polled reported that they asked the callers who was behind the poll and were not given an answer.

"The mystery is solved," said Joanne Atlas, a Democratic candidate for a four-year council term and vice president of Skylands CLEAN. "I'm not surprised. I knew it [the polling] wasn't us, so it must have been them.

"If I were them, that is exactly what I would be doing," Atlas added. "They may be surprised to find there is a lot of concern about the environment and that CLEAN has a lot of support in the town."

Atlas said she was surprised to get a telephone call last week from a man who said he was asking voters their opinion of Skylands CLEAN, what they see as major issues in town, and whether they intend to vote for Democrats or Republicans in November's municipal and county elections.

Curious as to what this was about, Atlas said she asked to speak to a supervisor, who didn't provide much enlightenment.

"He wouldn't give me his last name," she said, "and wouldn't tell me who they worked for."

E-mail: barry@northjersey.com

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