Politics
Johnson touts ‘bipartisan’ path for FISA reauthorization, but obstacles remain
A new company whose polls had influenced campaign decisions and helped shape the midterms narrative admitted that it was faking its polling data on Tuesday night, setting off a firestorm in the electionsphere.
Wedgewood Polls, facing an imminent publication of an investigation from FiftyPlusOne showing it was fabricating its numbers, declared late Tuesday night that it had been an “experimental project” to show how an “entirely fabricated polling firm” could sway public opinion while painting themselves as the good guys.They’d left an impact and been included by multiple credible polling aggregators including The New York Times — and mentioned twice in Blue Light News’s Morning Score polling roundup.
Speculation is flying about what, exactly, Wedgewood was trying to achieve, and there’s still little public information about the defunct company that had crowdfunded thousands of dollars for its fake data. Was it an effort to boost progressives Democrats in primaries? If so, were progressives or Republicans really behind it? Was it being used to game betting markets? Were top operatives using the bogus data to make spending decisions? Were aggregation accounts too quick to jump on posting the data?
An email to the account listed on Wedgewood’s X account bounced back, and previous PDFs of polls that were tied to the account are no longer available online.
Regardless of what Wedgewood said it was trying to achieve (they remain adamant the project “was never intended to sway an election or permanently mislead the public”) — pollsters, operatives and candidates alike said there were real world implications for posting fake data online.
Mallory McMorrow, the unsuccessful Michigan Democratic Senate candidate who dropped out before her primary, said a fake Wedgewood poll that showed her crashing to single-digit support against Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens “dried up” donations, “devastated” volunteers and led to numerous calls to exit the race.
“It killed us,” McMorrow wrote on X. “These were some of the absolute worst days on the campaign. Especially for my team. There are no words to explain the morale blow, and nothing I could do or say to my team to fix it.”
Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic operative who ran a super PAC supporting McMorrow, said the Wedgewood poll “was used by several donors to pull back funding at a time we were being outspent by $80 million.”
The account also posted a poll showing democratic socialist Francesca Hong leading in Wisconsin gubernatorial primary, when there was scant public polling, something that contributed to the narrative she was ahead before the election (which she lost).
They also posted a poll showing the Mississippi Senate race within reach, just before Democrats plowed money into the state. Scott Colom, the Democrat running for the seat, blasted the poll to his press list as proof there was “massive momentum” behind him.
That led election watchers to argue that Wedgewood’s data was being used to make spending decisions in top outside groups, which elicited a response from Democrats’ main Senate super PAC.
“Absolutely not. We don’t make spending or strategic decisions based on external polling,” Lauren French, a spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, said on X.
In its investigation, FiftyPlusOne said it had included Wedgewood in its aggregator because the firm was founded by people who had worked in the polling industry previously.
There’s also been broad finger pointing at the aggregator X accounts that post polls frequently — and sometimes without verifying their accuracy.
“You posted our polls multiple times. If you suspected it was fake, why did you post our results?” Wedgewood’s account shot back after Polling USA wrote that “my suspicions about Wedgewood were correct.”
The whole ordeal illuminates just how big a problem polling could be in 2028, where both parties will have presidential primaries and polling can shift the narrative on a dime.
“What I’m concerned about is essentially information pollution, things that are either intended to skew prediction markets or just straight misinformation flying around,” Charlotte Swasey, a pollster for the Democratic group Searchlight, told POLITICO Magazine recently. “It would be really difficult, especially in a primary, to tell people that what they’re seeing about their preferred candidate isn’t real.”
A version of this article first appeared in Blue Light News Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Blue Light News Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
America’s Heartland sows doubt in the GOP
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INTIFADA FLARE UP: One of New York City’s most prestigious public high schools is facing backlash because a school-based socialist youth group co-signed a social media post declaring “Intifada Until Victory!”
The Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter of Stuyvesant High School — along with YDSA chapters at Hunter College, the New School, City College and Lehman College — all signed onto an Oct. 8 Instagram post that accused the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter of silencing student activists who wanted to protest Mayor Zohran Mamdani over Israel.
The groups accused the democratic socialist mayor of betraying the Palestinian cause and blasted his decision to keep NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in her position, referring to her as a “Zionist billionaire.”
The term intifada — which refers to violent uprisings against Jews in Israel — is viewed by many Jews as a call to violence against them.
Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers — an advocacy group representing Jewish teachers and students across the city — is demanding the posts be removed immediately and that the YDSA group provide a public apology to the school community.
“NYC public schools have seen hundreds of antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents since October 7, 2023,” he wrote in an email yesterday to Stuyvesant Principal Seung Yu and New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels. “When a school-recognized club amplifies this rhetoric, it risks contributing to a hostile environment.”
In the missive, Spern invoked Title VI — the federal law that bans discrimination based on race, shared ancestry and national origin — and demanded a review of the YDSA chapter’s charter, faculty adviser and recent activities for compliance.
Spern also cited a chancellor’s regulation that states that student clubs operate under the principal’s supervision and must remain consistent with the school’s educational goals.
Yu did not respond to requests for comment. Mamdani’s Department of Education also did not respond to Playbook.
Spern told Playbook today that he has yet to receive a response from Yu.
“To flat out ignore it is extremely irresponsible,” he said.
The NYC-DSA defended the organization.
“We support the right to organize,” NYC-DSA co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo said in a statement. “NYC-DSA did not organize or endorse this particular rally, but red scare tactics have never been effective tools for engaging with student movements.”
The social media uproar is the latest flashpoint in ongoing tensions in the city over Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the war that followed.
Mamdani, a longtime critic of Israel, was reluctant to condemn the term “globalize the intifada” on the campaign trail last year before finally saying he will not use the term. He also drew bipartisan backlash over his statement marking the third anniversary of the attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled the mayor an antisemite, which Mamdani has denied.
Mamdani, though, has also simultaneously faced backlash from pro-Palestinian activists who accused him of betraying the Palestinian cause by retaining Tisch, who’s Jewish and a self-described Zionist. Those critics have also criticized him for not doing enough to prevent local synagogues from holding events that promote land sales in Israel, some of them in the occupied West Bank. — Madina Touré
From the Capitol
Q’S LATEST: Gov. Kathy Hochul has a 55-41 lead over Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, a Quinnipiac University poll released this afternoon found.
That 14-point advantage is narrower than the 19-point lead Quinnipiac gave Hochul last month. But it’s more in line with the numbers from other pollsters: Marist found Hochul up by 11 two weeks ago, Emerson had Hochul up 12 in early October, and Siena measured her lead at 9 points last month.
Despite Hochul’s lead, the Q Poll concluded Blakeman has an enthusiasm advantage. A total of 65% of his backers were “very enthusiastic” to support him, while only 33% of Hochul’s supporters said the same. — Bill Mahoney
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
LANDER DETAINED: Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander was detained today by Israeli security officials while harvesting olives in the West Bank.
Lander, a self-described liberal Zionist and critic of Israel, said he went to the West Bank as part of the “Protect the Harvest” coalition to support Palestinians gathering crops.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, a progressive rabbinical organization, said she was also detained Wednesday, along with “approximately 80 American, Israeli, and international volunteers providing a protective presence for Palestinian farmers.” According to a press release from T’ruah, there were “approximately two hours of peaceful harvesting” until “Israeli forces declared the area a closed military zone” and detained them to transport them to a police station, despite the volunteers agreeing to leave.
An Israeli military official told Blue Light News that officers from the Israel Defense Forces and Border Police, along with local police, arrived at the scene because Palestinians did not submit a request to coordinate harvesting in that area, which is required ahead of time. The official added that the farm in question “requires only a small number of harvesters to collect its produce” and “the security establishment views the arrival of dozens of activists as an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process.”
Lander was released “once the matter was brought to our attention” that he is a congressional candidate, the official said.
Lander confirmed in a social media post that he was released with a “warning” because of his “public profile.”
Read more from Madison Fernandez in Blue Light News.
IN OTHER NEWS
— MUSK: Elon Musk has spent more than $500,000 to support Rep. Mike Lawler’s reelection bid against Democratic challenger Cait Conley. (Gothamist)
— STOP: New York City deployed 600 red light cameras to intersections, the maximum number allowed under state law. (New York Daily News)
— MEASLES: In the wake of a measles crisis, the state Health Department remains locked in a court battle with Amish schools over religious vaccine exemptions. (The New York Times)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
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