Lobbyist commissioned controversial poll in mayor’s race

Candidate Sho Dozono pays $27,295 for poll as in-kind campaign contribution

By Jim Redden

LocalNewsDaily.com, Feb 17, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (29 Reader comments)

Portland lobbyist Len Bergstein tells the Portland Tribune that he commissioned the public opinion poll that has emerged as a controversial issue in the Portland mayor’s race.

“I commission polls from time to time for my own purposes, and I wanted to know what people were thinking about the mayor’s race,” Bergstein told the Portland Tribune Sunday afternoon.

Among other things, the poll compared how City Commissioner Sam Adams and Portland businessman Sho Dozono would do in the mayor’s race. Although Bergstein is now advising Dozono in his race against Adams, Bergstein said he commissioned the poll before Dozono decided to enter the race.Bergstein also said he did not tell Dozono about the poll in advance, but shared the results with him after they came in.

On Friday Dozono reported the poll as a $27,295 in-kind contribution to his campaign.

Dozono said he personally paid for the poll after it became controversial, and listed the in-kind contribution in an amended filing with the elections division of the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees all election in Oregon.

The payment was listed as being made to Simon Victoria Research, the company that conducted the poll. Bergstein said he had not previously paid for the poll because the bill did not arrive until mid-January.

“Dozono paid the bill. There was no second payment for the poll,” said Bergstein.

According to Dozono for Mayor campaign Aime Abbott, Dozono paid for the poll to resolve any lingering questions over its finances.

"After several discussions with both the City Auditor and the State Elections Division, Sho determined that the most transparent action was to report the poll as a contribution to the campaign committee,” said Abbott. “Sho also decided to pay for the poll himself, even though he received this poll information prior to the time he had decided to qualify as a publicly financed candidate.”

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