A pre-election spat over polling

Hours before the polls opened, Charlie Winburn made an attempt to get WCPO-TV (Channel 9) to kill a planned broadcast of exclusive Survey USA poll results showing Winburn in fourth place.

Lawyer W. Stuart Dornette of Taft Stettinius & Hollister -- best known for representing the Cincinnati Bengals -- sent WCPO General Manager Bill Fee a letter Monday afternoon taking issue with the pollster's methodology. Among his beefs: Survey USA uses automated calls -- not human interviewers -- and underestimates Republican voters.

"WCPO's news organization has a great reputation in this community," Dornette wrote. "Publishing the results of a tainted poll on the eve of this election undercuts that credibility and is the wrong thing to do."

WCPO broadcast the results anyway -- which, as Fee pointed out in his response to Dornette -- weren't entirely negative for Winburn.

And that seemed to satisfy the Republican candidate from Mount Airy. "What they did, which turned out to be a blessing, is they showed how David Pepper went down 3 points and I went up 5 points," Winburn said tonight. "I have no problems with Channel 9. Take that letter and throw it away."

Fee said late this afternoon he plans more Survey USA polling in the general election. "They've been thoroughly reliable, I am convinced their methodology is sound. They are very professional," Fee said.

The ultimate test of Survey USA's reliability will come soon enough, Fee said. "It's going to be a moot point in a couple of hours."