Landers: Campaign Did Not Pay for Negative Poll

Baltimore City mayoral candidate Jody Landers said his campaign did not pay for a telephone poll that Baltimore Brew reporter Joan Jacobson called "slightly smarmy". 

"My campaign has not paid for any polling to date," Landers wrote in an email on Thursday morning. 

Jacobson wrote in the May 12 article, "I have a Baltimore political who-done-it that I hope you can help me solve."  She then went on to describe a telephone poll she participated in that asked questions that appeared to her to be a "ruse".

"The “real” questions spent more time dishing dirt on candidates than asking my opinion," Jacobson wrote.

Jacobson became interested in finding out who paid for the poll. 

Jacbonson decided that the poll was probably not paid for by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake after the pollster asked about a fund raising dinner held by developer Patrick Turner for the mayor. 

"...I’m absolutely sure Rawlings-Blake did not pay for this survey," Jacobson wrote. 

Jacobson also decided that mayoral candidate Otis Rolley probably did not pay for the poll since the pollster asked her if she had known that Rolley received a large number of traffic tickets. 

Jacobson said the pollster did not ask any questions that "shed a negative light on any other possible mayoral candidate".

Landers said he did not know about the Jacobson story.

"Personally, I don't like this type of campaign tactic and it seems to me this sort of thing undermines the public's willingness to participate in legitimate polls," Landers said. 

Landers said he was curious to know who paid for the poll. 

There have been no responses yet to emails sent to the other mayoral candidates asking about the poll.  In addition to Landers, emails were sent to:  Rawlings-Blake, Rolley, Frank Conaway Sr., Catherine Pugh, and Carl Stokes.