Fox News viewers who responded to a television ad asking them to vote in a poll on the 2020 presidential race may have been surprised to learn that the survey’s only available option was a vote of support for President Donald Trump’s re-election.
A company called American Polling LLC has been buying ad time on Fox programs this month, according to documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission. A publicly available version of one of the group’s 30-second ads asks viewers to call a 1-800 number to give their preferences on the 2020 presidential contest.
PAY DIRT decided to give the number a call. The ad as aired on TV prompted viewers to press two to support Joe Biden, three for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and four for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)—the latter two of whom are no longer running for president. But the automated survey that greeted actual callers simply asked them to press one if they supported Trump. Press two, and the automated service replies, "Thank you for supporting President Trump. Your vote will only be counted once. Goodbye."
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Surveys, by definition, are supposed to give respondents more than one choice. But this is not actually a survey. And the group sponsoring it, American Polling LLC, isn’t actually a polling company. And the client behind these ads has no interest in gauging public sentiment on the presidential race. Rather, it is a pro-Trump super PAC attempting to use these “polls” to gin up new fundraising leads.
Callers who pressed one to select Trump right off the bat in the telephone surveys promoted in American Polling’s ad campaign were then asked to press one to hear a message from Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican operative and the chairman of the group Great America PAC.
“Great America PAC led the fight in 2016 to elect President Trump and we will lead the fight again for his re-election in 2020, but we urgently need help from President Trump supporters like you,” Rollins declares in a pre-recorded message. “Can we count on you to make a contribution to support the fight for his re-election in 2020? If you are willing to make a contribution, please press 1 now.”
Pressing one when prompted forwards the call to a real person who then collects credit card and donor information on behalf of Great America PAC.
Callers who pressed nothing at all when asked if they supported Trump were greeted by an automated voice that says, "Sorry I did not understand you," which then prompted the narrator to re-read the survey all over again: “Thank you for calling American Polling to take our presidential election survey. Please press 1 now if you will vote for the re-election of President Trump. Again, press one now for President Trump.” If you don’t press a button three times in a row, the automated voice says, “Since you seem to be having lots of trouble with this question, let's move on to the next question,” after which Rollins’ recorded message is played.
In short, there is no survey, just various paths to get to a place where Rollins hits you up for cash. He did not respond to questions about the American Polling ad campaign.
According to FCC filings, the company has purchased nationwide airtime on Fox News this month to broadcast the spot. Publicly available versions of the company’s ads don’t mention Great America PAC at all; they simply say the ads are paid for by American Polling LLC. Neither Great America PAC nor any other federal political committee has reported paying that firm in Federal Election Commission filings.
FCC filings do indicate that American Polling’s president is a man named Bryan Hartong. He’s a Canton, Ohio-based fundraiser and media buyer who also leads the firm RRTV Media. That company “develops and executes fundraising campaigns for political & nonprofit organizations that acquire donors and produces results that exceed traditional fundraising programs,” according to Hartong’s LinkedIn page.
American Polling’s 2020 election spot is not the first ad the company has run for Great America. It also put out a spot early this year asking for similarly dubious survey participation regarding voter attitudes on Trump’s impeachment. Like the more recent ad, that spot directed callers to an automated message from Rollins, and then to a Great America fundraising representative.
While Great America hasn’t reported paying American Polling, it has steered millions to RRTV since last year for television advertising and “lead generation,” which commonly refers to efforts to recruit new donors. The address listed for RRTV in Great America’s FEC filings, a post office box in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, is the same one that American Polling lists in its filings with the FCC.
The vast majority of Great America’s payments to RRTV have been reported to the FEC as independent expenditures for television ads in support of Trump or in opposition to Biden. So far this cycle, Great America has paid the company more than $3.6 million to air those TV ads.
But as is evident in the ads themselves, their primary purpose is not to support or oppose a political candidate, but rather to raise money for Great America. By classifying clear fundraising activities as political expenditures, the super PAC is able to avoid the perception that it’s spending its donors’ money simply on raising more money.
There are few regulations governing how a PAC must spend or classify its fundraising disbursements, which has led to frequent cases of ostensibly political groups that exist to do little beyond raise money and pay their own executives. Those groups are commonly known as “scam PACs.”
While Great America would no doubt dispute that label, its American Polling TV ads are plainly geared as much toward padding the group’s bottom line as affecting the outcome of an election, to say nothing of the ostensible attempt to gather survey data.
