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Show Letters Editor Editor: Kent Shearers recent column criticizing our staff and the delegate survey we conducted for Dixie Leavitt et.al. had such obvious political motivations that the innuendoes and poorly researched criticisms hardly deserve comment. One point, however, should be made. The insinuation that our survey was slanted to improve the results in favor of our clients is ludicrous, particularly in the light of the vote of the delegates at the Republican State Convention. As of three weeks before the convention, we found that 26 percent of the delegates planned to support Dixie Leavitt w'hile 28 percent were undecided forty percent actually voted for Leavitt at the convention. Had Kent Shearer bothered to contact us, we would have been glad to show him a copy of our questionnaire and discuss our polling procedure with him. In any case, to tell a candidate he is afcY mw M5M0RV 2 meI SO MOTES doing better than he really is, just prior to a convention, would be suicidal for any firm in the survey research business. Opinion Sampling Research Institute has a staff which is experienced in every facet of public opinion surveying. Our delegate survey ivas accurate and our clients were very satisfied with our work. Randy T. Simmons Roger D. Hansen Editor's Note: Mr. Shearer's column of July 7, 1976, "To Canvass, to Sample, and Vaveat Emptore, ' ' referred only to a poll paid for by Mr. Leavitt. The Opinion Sampling firm was not identified. me VOORS 6 lav. sou. CUU61V6. , Q5TS tooRse. UU Et jpftse me Kjg ves. were mo. were sw. wr i mie that were MOTE- - UU Pragmatic Dogmatics Campaign Gimmicks by Kent Shearer No political campaign is, or ever has been, devoid of gimmicks. At best, they epitomize the third and fourth meanings attributed to the word by The American Heritage Dictionary, i.e. an attention-gettin- g strategem or inducement, or a gadget. At worst, they embody the first and second definitions, i.e. a tricky, deceptive, often dishonest device, or a concealed disadvantage: catch. When ones own political plan includes a gimmick, it has the third and fourth denomination. When one's opponent utilizes a gimmick, it is of the first and second class. Gimmicks, like jokes, rarely are really novel. Wayne Owens 1972 walk of Utahs Second Congressional District was a carbon copy of identical efforts by others elsewhere. Dixie Leavitts and Jack Carlsons recent Utah employment of delegate polls to create a convention bandwagon is now part and parcel of President Fords battle plan for Kansas City. Utah Holiday magazine reports that the warm and very noticeable orange and brown colors that adorned Jake Garns 1974 graphics were duplicated from a prior Pennsylvania race. Few doubt that, this year, Ted Moss a plans an ad - complete with scales which is facsimile of Jake's prior pitch for Senate balance betwixt Democrats and Republicans. Gimmicks, howrever, seldom stand alone. They are adjuncts that assist, but do not create, an otherwise successful effort. Not just any Joe Blow can triumph if he will but produce himself in orange and brown, walk his territory, plead for balance, and concoct delegate polls. For instance, the traditional wisdom is that an unknown aspirant should early employ billboards to enhance his name recognition. It has worked at present for Leavitt and Carlson. On the other hand, the tactics magic was imperceivable when tried in 1974 by Lynn Hilton or, this time around, by Clinton Miller. It follows that gimmicks can fall flat but a As an nominee nevertheless succeed. example, two years past Garns committee effectuated a realities system. Its components were a tape recorder and an unlisted telephone number, the latter of which was revealed to the press in hopes that it on dull news days would call, and - au mirabile! receive topical oral pronouncements in Jakes dulcet tones. The gimmick failed. No reporter buzzed to broadcast prerecorded Garnisms, in consequence Jakes interest in the gimmick evaporated, and the upshot was that the -- unlisted telephone - over the last four months of the campaign - almost literally regaled those who cared to dial with no more than Jakes expected endorsement of Independence Day. It is in this context that I congratulate (probably for the last time in 1976) Senate GOP hopeful Orrin Hatch for one of the better gimmicks Ive seen. Alert to our electronic age, the Hatch Committee produced two cassette tapes which, seriatim, were posted to 7 State Republican delegates to the July Convention. The first presented Orrin telling the constituency what they wanted to hear and always have believed. The second essentially was a tape of testimony to Orrins virtues by many who said they knew him. The gimmick was effective. Reasonably original, it appears to have done its job. 16-1- Orrin will face Carlson-of-the-billboar- ds in the Senate primary, September 14, and - if there successful on November 2. The electorate in those events is overly populous for the cassette gimmick to be financially feasible. That having been said, my assessment does not signal any question that Orrin will produce another gimmick or more from his hat of tricks. Those of you wrho shouted and waved at Wayne Owens in 72 74 should be impressed. Moss-of-the-balan- ce -- |