Don't ask GOP pollster about Brown poll

The public release of a poll intended to convince Scott Brown that it was politically safe to support "don't ask, don't tell" has produced a bitter round of recriminations among the pollster, the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign and the Republican consulting firm that commissioned the poll on HRC's behalf.

The pollster, Neil Newhouse, was hired by the DCI Group — a powerhouse Republican consulting and lobbying firm — to conduct the poll for Brown on the assumption that it would "never see the light of day," he told POLITICO. But after Brown voted against repealing "don't ask," HRC — DCI's client — released the poll to the Boston Globe, prompting a furious reaction from the pollster and offering a glimpse into where exactly hired guns draw the ideological line.

"Public Opinion Strategies recently conducted a survey in Massachusetts for DCI which you yesterday released, purportedly as the client of the project and 'straw-buyer' of the poll," Newhouse wrote to Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, claiming he never knew HRC was the client. "Public Opinion Strategies has never conducted polling for the Human Rights Campaign and never plan to; further, we have never accepted money from your organization and don't intend to start now. This survey was completed for DCI and apparently was conducted under false pretense."

"Our firm was misled as to the client of this survey and will refuse to accept payment for the survey and assume ownership of the survey and its data," wrote Newhouse, who also polls for Brown and for former Gov. Mitt Romney, telling POLITICO that he believed that the client was DCI itself, not another group.

The poll found that 77 percent of Massachusetts voters backed repealing the bill and advised that a vote for repeal "would reinforce the positive image he has among those I’s and D’s who voted for him in January."

DCI officials did not respond to inquiries about the details of the flap, or whether they believed Newhouse knew the ultimate client. But the firm took full blame for the conflict.

"When DCI asked Neil Newhouse to do survey work regarding the repeal of 'don’t ask, don’t tell,' we assured Neil his work would remain private. It did not work out that way, and we regret that outcome," said a DCI spokesman, Geoffrey Basye.

Newhouse told POLITICO that he is "upset that it was used to try to embarrass our client, Scott Brown — and that somebody decided that even though I was assured by [DCI Chairman Tom] Synhorst that this would never become public information."

"We would not do work for Human Rights Campaign. As a Republican pollster, that’s not an organization we’d work for," he said.

But HRC Communications Director Fred Sainz said HRC had never made any effort to disguise that it was the client and accused the pollster of hypocrisy, though he said he didn't have any direct evidence that Newhouse knew HRC was the client.

"I guess it’s one thing to take gay money when it’s under the table, but it’s an entirely different thing when your other client happens to be a contender for the Republican nomination for the presidency," he said.