Upset with being shut out of two major candidate forums, U.S. Senate hopeful Troy Hebert filed a lawsuit and restraining order petition today against Southern Media & Opinion Research and pollster Bernie Pinsonat over a poll Hebert says cost him a shot at participating in the forums.
In the petition, filed in the 19th Judicial District Court, Hebert accuses Pinsonat and Southern Media & Opinion Research of incorrectly identifying him as a Republican in a U.S. Senate poll distributed to local media. The poll was used as criteria for groups to exclude candidates from forums, to the detriment of his campaign, says Hebert, who’s running without a party affiliation.
The lawsuit says Hebert switched affiliations from Democrat to independent in 2010.
“Just think of the mess it would have caused if the poll had listed (John) Kennedy, (Charles) Boustany and (John) Fleming as Democrats and (Caroline) Fayard and (Foster) Campbell as Republicans. But because they belong to a major party and have big money, the rules are different for them,” Hebert says in a statement.
Hebert polled at 2% in the survey with a margin of error of 3.5%.
When reached by phone, Pinsonat says Hebert’s party affiliation was misidentified, but he has no control over how local organizations use the information in the survey and doesn’t recommend that the polls be used to establish criteria for forums.
“It’s just for public consumption,” Pinsonat says, adding that he didn’t realize at the time that Hebert had switched his party affiliation.
Hebert is one of two dozen people to qualify for the U.S. Senate seat David Vitter currently holds. The depth of the candidate pool and time constraints have led many organizations to set criteria on which candidates to include and exclude at Senate forums.
The National Federation of Independent Business, along with the Louisiana Restaurant Association and Louisiana Retailers Association, used an SMOR poll to decide which candidates to exclude from its June 29 candidate forum. Candidates needed to poll at 5% of support to be invited.
The Louisiana Municipal Association used the same criteria for a forum held during its 79th convention on July 28.
Such decisions have also drawn criticism from candidates such as Caroline Fayard, a Democrat who was also excluded.
In his petition, Hebert says he explained to the organizations that the polls did not correctly identify his party affiliation, but he still was not allowed to participated.
Hebert says he surveyed higher in polls that correctly identified his party affiliation. Those surveys include GBA Strategies (7%) and Survey USA (5%). Hebert says any proceeds from the lawsuit will be donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
—Alexandria Burris
