Malloy push-polling?

More phone calls?

A Branford man picked up his telephone Monday night to find a political pollster on the other end.

The conversation started innocently as the caller asked whether the state was going in the right direction and how he felt about the races for governor and the U.S. Senate. But as soon as the Branford man said he was voting for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano instead of Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, the conversation abruptly turned to a series of anti-DeStefano questions.

What the pollster did not know was that the Branford man was Sam Gejdenson, the former U.S. House member who has publicly endorsed DeStefano.

"There was a lot of noise in the background, so it was a big phone-bank operation," said Gejdenson, a Democrat who served in Congress for 20 years before losing to Republican Rob Simmons in 2000. "It was definitely just a push poll to beat up the other guy. They said New Haven was dangerous. I've never felt endangered in New Haven."

Whoops, someone called the wrong guy.

The Malloy campaign deny that they are behind the phonecalls and say that Malloy supporters have received anti-Malloy polling calls also.

"If Sam Gejdenson thinks he got a push poll, it certainly wasn't from the Malloy campaign or anyone we consider supporters," responded Chris Cooney, campaign manager for Malloy.

[...]

Cooney said Malloy supporters have received anti-Malloy telephone calls recently, but he said he was not making the assumption that the calls were generated by the DeStefano campaign. DeStefano's spokesman, Derek Slap, denied that the campaign had made any anti-Malloy calls.

Who's lying and who's telling the truth?

If anyone has received an anti-Malloy or anti-DeStefano phone call, please email me with the details.