Carol Moseley Braun has been prone to utter a few gaffes during the Chicago Mayor's Race.
She pushed Rahm Emanuel to discuss tampons during a Chicago Tribune Editorial Board meeting. She told reporters she didn't feel like releasing her taxes. And she accused opponent Patricia Van Pelt Watkins of being strung out on crack.
Today, she may have gone one step further.
During a press conference designed to attack Emanuel over his role on the board of lender Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Braun took a question about a recent ABC7 poll that showed her in fourth place in the race with single digit support.
"I don't believe 'em, I said that yesterday," she said. "One of those polls, frankly, was taken by a guy who contributed to -- and you can go check the D2s on this -- was taken by a guy who contributed to the other candidate! So he's getting contributions from his pollster and then he's telling you ' oh she's losing!" and I don't think so. Just like in 1992, when I surprised all of you, and the polls didn't say nice things about me and I won, I'm going to win this time!"
Ward Room checked the D2 report and didn't immediately a pollster among the 1,775 contributors to Emanuel's campaign. (Look for yourself, the report is published here.)
It's assumed that Moseley Braun was talking about Richard Day, from Richard Day Research, who produced the most recent mayoral poll. His results showed Moseley Braun in last place with 6 percent of the vote.
Politics
Day says he's not surprised by the assertion, but that it's patently false.
"I have not contributed to Rahm Emanuel ever, nor have I contributed to anyone from this race," he said when reached by phone. "It would be terrific to verify from her if it's me. Have her show some documentation."
A check of Opensecrets.org shows that Day did contribute to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, but Day said there should be no conflict there.
Update: pollster John Anzalone, from Anzalone Liszt Research appears on the D2 forms as a $1000 contributor to Emanuel's campaign. His company conducted two polls for the Teamsters Union, one in November and another in January. Both of the Anzalone/Teamsters polls showed Moseley Braun in second place.
