Now, I love doing polls on my site, but I know they are nowhere near an approximation of the real opinions of the population at large. Still, we pay attention to them. The latest poll to gain attention online is one at a site run by the Conservative Christians of Alabama. Their web address and name seems meant to confuse their organization with the Christian Coalition of Alabama (though there is a disclaimer paragraph about this buried in the text on the main page), which got me curious as to who they really are.
The Conservative Christians of Alabama list their contact address as 1301 Azalia Road in Mobile. I checked that address, and guess what came up? Jim Ziegler’s law office uses the same address. The Conservative Christians site also directs all media inquiries to Mr. Ziegler. Who is he?
Jim Ziegler served on the Public Service Commission in the ’70′s then repeatedly narrowly lost election after election for other offices and retired from politics in 2006. He also represented the “Montgomery twenty-two” protesters who were arrested while protesting the removal of Judge Roy Moore’s Ten Commandments. Ziegler was also the chairman of the League of Christian Voters (he seems to have an affinity for groups that sound bigger than they really are)…which now seems to be defunct.
The domain name of the Conservative Christians site is registered to Heritage Advertising and the e-mail address is listed as tencommandmentssigns@yahoo.com. Hmmmm…anyone else starting to see a pattern here? Yes Heritage Advertising is responsible for those “Keep the Ten Commandments” bumper stickers you sometimes see (which are free to Alabamians through an anonymous donation…wonder who paid for that?). There are a series of websites that use that e-mail address…including this one where Roy Moore is quite prominently mentioned and pictured.
I certainly don’t see anything wrong with Mr. Ziegler starting yet another group and putting up a poll, but be careful in giving it more credibility than even the average online survey.
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If you're promoting a candidate, at least be upfront. RT @TWAY_Kris: Online Poll Has Interesting Backer http://j.mp/8E2LDw #alpolitics
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A must read from @TWAY_Kris: Online Straw Poll Has Interesting Backer http://ow.ly/Jx56 #alpolitics
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RT @TWAY_Kris Online Straw Poll Has Interesting Backer http://j.mp/8E2LDw | Jim Ziegler, the 90s called. They'd like their web design back.
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Fraudulent & pathetic || RT @TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: Online Straw Poll Has Interesting Backer http://j.mp/8E2LDw #alpolitics
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Be upfront about who you’re pulling for? At this stage of the campaign season, I believe thats a violation of the unwritten rules.
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You may be right Walt…maybe it’s just frustrating to have to keep up with all these different front groups and poorly designed websites.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by TWAY_Kris: NEW TWAY Blog Post: Online Straw Poll Has Interesting Backer http://j.mp/8E2LDw #alpolitics…
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You’re right, Walt. I do understand one’s hesitation to come out and support a candidate this early. But it’s one thing to be hesitant and another to put up a sham website with an understated bias.
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And to echo John’s comment, at least get a better website design…
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Won’t say its necessarily a matter of failing to declare but more a matter of wanting to appear as having something a candidate wants (mailing list, volunteers etc) or an effort to curry favor from a candidate. Note there is more than one candidate seeking the better-than-thou set’s vote.
Tracing shadow orgs and fronts can be fun, particularly if you do searches based on catch phrases and the movement’s jargon, but can also be a great time sink better spent patching roofs, rotating tires or annoying the children.
Website design, flash block, ad block, turning off automatic image loading and noscript helps in firefox. But some best seen bye using links to dump the page then feeding the result thru the swedish chef bjork! bjork! filter.
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