News

By Martin Wisckol
Orange County Register Politics report
Posted on the Register's Total Buzz blog.

It doesn’t take much to bring out the legion of Diane Harkey haters. Folks Diane Harkey Watch even took the initiative last week to find out exactly how many Harkey haters there are out there – and if that number might grow because of the current legal problems of the Dana Point Assembly member and her husband, Dan. (Click here to see my story today on the Harkey and the lawsuit.)

Harkey’s numbers weren’t that great to start with, according to the poll that Harkey Watch commissioned for the Republican’s 73rd Assembly District.

President Barack Obama had a 54-percent favorable rating, and a 38-percent unfavorable rating, according to the poll done by NSON. Rep. John Campbell, a Republican representing a portion of the Assembly District, had a 33-percent favorable and 14-percent unfavorable rating.

Harkey had a 23-percent favorable rating and a 21.5-percent unfavorable rating. (Fifty-three percent of respondents either didn’t know of Campbell or Harkey, or had no opinion of them. So much for your informed South County electorate.)

The poll then asked if the participant had seen news stories about Harkey and his business. Seventy-three percent said they had not.

The survey moved in the direction of a “push poll” – a political poll designed to influence a voters outlook. The fifth question: “Do these lawsuit claims affect your potential vote for Diane Harkey in the 2010 election?”

The interesting thing isn’t that 59 percent of the people said it probably would. Despite the leading nature of the question, nearly a quarter of the people said it probably wouldn’t.

Dan Harkey’s Point Center Financial Inc., which lends tens of millions of dollars to developers, is being sued by investors for fraud and being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Diane Harkey has spent $1.25 million on her own political campaigns since 2004, was once an officer with Point Center, and has apparently used joint family funds for politics.

The lawsuit includes Diane Harkey as a defendant, saying her campaign money came from Point Center. That’s the subject of my aforementioned story today.

The Salt Lake City-based NSON specializes in Republican polling. They surveyed 400 registered voters on March 11 and 12. The poll has a margin of error of +/-4.9 percent.

http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2009/03/17/harkey-haters-poll-voters-and-it-doesnt-look-good/14485/