Fossella's Republican Pollster

In that crappy 'wacky' Advance article they ran yesterday, one thing I skipped over was that Rep. Vito Fossella hired a polling company, FLSConnect, to poll Staten Islanders on a distorted version of Harrion's plan. In most circles that would be considered a push poll, or a poll that really is more of a political advertisement by the nature of the questions than a real poll.

The Advance does a bit of reporting in noting;

FLS performs fund-raising, get-out-the-vote, automated calling and other services for Republican officials, candidates and local parties, as well as for the Green Bay Packers, General Motors, Exxon and other clients.

and that is a bit of an understatement. When you visit their site, the first thing to see is glowing praise from Karl Rove and this tidbit on their 'About Us' page

Our client list consists of the last five Presidential Campaigns and Bush/Cheney 2004. We also provide services for the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and hundreds of Republican State Parties and candidates on all levels, as well as corporations, associations and other organizations.

Does it really require that big of a leap to expect a partisan firm such as FLSConnect would come back with a partisan poll for their client? There are no poll questions published. There are no statisitcs on how many residents were called and the diversity of their make up. But the Advance ran it nonetheless as news. Surely if they work for the Green Bay Packers it must be a legit opperation.