Texas Pollsters Open Oak Bluffs Campaign on MVC Withdrawal

By JULIA WELLS

Oak Bluffs voters began receiving calls this week from a Texas
polling company in what appears to be the opening salvo for a heated
political campaign prior to a special town election on possible
secession from the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

On May 13 Oak Bluffs voters will be asked to say yes or no to town
withdrawal from the MVC.

The campaign to withdraw from the commission was begun last year by
the developers of the Down Island Golf Club and their supporters. A plan
for a luxury private golf club in the southern woodlands section of Oak
Bluffs has been rejected by the commission three times in the last two
years.

The special election was set last week after a lobbyist hired by
golf course developer Corey Kupersmith put pressure on state legislators
to move a home rule petition for withdrawal from the regional planning
agency. The bill dates to last year when a record turnout of voters in
Oak Bluffs agreed to take the first step toward withdrawing from the
27-year-old regional planning agency.

A second vote by the town in the form of a ballot question is
required for the bill to become law

This week the telephone polling began. A large number of Oak Bluffs
voters reported receiving telephone calls from a polling company in
Austin, Tex.

Voters who reported being surveyed were asked a variety of
questions, including whether they were aware of the May 13 election,
whether they planned to vote and how they planned to vote on the
question of withdrawing from the MVC. Voters were also asked to rate a
list of issues on a scale of one to five, with five being most
important. The issues included new jobs, new tax revenues for the town,
open space and conservation, fire and police protection and funding for
schools.

Some voters reported that the polling person, a woman, asked whoever
answered the telephone if she could speak to the man of the house.

One voter quizzed the telephone pollster about her company and
learned that the name of the company is TDM Research and Communications
in Austin, Tex. The telephone pollster declined to say who had hired TDM
to conduct the poll.

Information about TDM obtained from an Internet search shows that
the company was founded in 1989 to do field interviews for Democratic
pollsters and to execute small "voter contact" programs.

The company is a sister firm of the Tyson organization, another firm
that does work for the Democratic party.

A management statement about Tyson notes, among other things:
"Our scripts are tailored to deliver your campaign's
message," and also: "We recommend tactical revisions to your
program if we see unexpected response patterns."

It is unclear whether the survey work has been commissioned by the
golf club developers, and a Boston attorney who has been a leading
spokesman for the Down Island Golf Club said yesterday that he knew
nothing about the survey.

"I can say with certainty that I have no idea about any of
this," said James Ward, a partner at Nutter McLennen & Fish in
Boston.

Mr. Kupersmith did not return a telephone call from the Gazette.

Voters surveyed were also asked: "Overall, do you feel Oak
Bluffs is overdeveloped, underdeveloped, just about right or don't
know?"

Because of the somewhat leading nature of the questions, the survey
could be defined as a push poll, a telephone survey designed more to
shape than to measure public opinion.

Push polls are strictly regulated in some states, including Maine
and Virginia, but not in Massachusetts.

The question of whether to withdraw from the commission is expected
to be the subject of heated debate in the coming weeks, including the
annual town election next month where there is a seven-way race for two
seats on the board of selectmen.

A group formed last week to oppose the May 13 ballot question; the
group is called Keep OB in the MVC.

A spokesman for the group said this week that Keep OB in the MVC did
not commission the telephone survey.

"We don't need to conduct a public opinion survey
- we know how our neighbors and friends feel. We all recognize
that the Island without the Martha's Vineyard Commission would be
a very different place," said Kerry Scott, a member of the group.