Leesburg Supervisor Race Phone Survey

A number of neighbors in Leesburg have been receiving an interesting phone survey, the source of which is unknown. This survey asks respondents to decide between Scott York and Steve Stockman, and other races, before asking for a preference between Ken Reid and Kelly Burk.

I became aware of this when a friend received this survey call. When the pollster asked her preference between Ken and Kelly, my friend responded "I support Kelly Burk, and I'm a Republican." I suspect there are a number of us here in Leesburg who support Kelly as our Supervisor, regardless of political affiliations, because she has consistently put Leesburg first.

There are interesting parallels between this telephone survey, and a rash of late-election push polls which seems to be the norm for elections in Loudoun County. In 2007, for example, the preponderance of (generally Republican) push polls led to the Board of Supervisors actually passing a resolution condemning them! And in the 2010 Town Elections, the final week of the campaign saw a number of curious anti-Democratic "polling" phone calls to voters.

The law states that any phone surveys like this must declare who is paying for them. If you get one of these calls, please stay on the line and ask who, or what, is paying for it. It will be interesting to know if any of the candidates who voted against such polling in 2007 are involved in this year's re-emergence of them.