A widely shared poll that showed Mayor Karen Bass leading City Councilwoman Nithya Raman by nearly 12 percentage points ahead of the Nov. 3 mayoral runoff was fake, according to a report published Monday.
Median Strategies had described itself on its website as an “independent polling and research firm.” On Monday, the company acknowledged that it had produced a fake poll as part of a “short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” according to a message on its website.
The fake poll claimed it had surveyed 560 Los Angeles voters between July 30 and Aug. 5, with a 4.1% margin of error.
A representative for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a response to repeated inquiries from the Los Angeles Times, the company said the “poll” was nothing of the kind.
In its response, the company repeated its message now found on its website. The company told The Times, “We are not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews.”
The fake poll showed that 16% of respondents had voted for former television reality personality Spencer Pratt, who was knocked out of the mayoral race in June. Of those respondents, about 85% were planning to vote for Bass in November’s election, with about 7% supporting Raman.
Median Strategies in an analysis wrote that more moderate voters would support Bass rather than backing Raman, who is more aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.
The Times reported that Median Strategies released a poll on the Wisconsin gubernatorial race that showed Democratic socialist Francesca Hong with a lead of more than 20 percentage points. Hong ended up losing her bid for public office.
On Aug. 12, when the fake poll surfaced, Bass hailed the data. On her campaign account, a post read “Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!”
A campaign spokesperson confirmed the post has since been deleted and encouraged others to do so as well.
“This poll was reported on by multiple news outlets. Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” according to a statement from Bass’ campaign.
Raman’s campaign criticized Bass’ team for failing to vet the company before sharing the results.
“It is the latest example of an administration that too often struggles to get the basics right — from posting about a pothole repair before the pothole was fixed to repeatedly giving Boyle Heights residents a Lineage cleanup deadline that the company now disputes,” Liz Garcia, a spokesman for Raman’s campaign, said in a statement. “Angelenos deserve a mayor who gets the facts right, communicates clearly, and does the work before announcing the result.”
When the Median Strategies survey came out, City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who won reelection in June by a wide margin, had criticized it and described it as a “push poll.” Mejia has endorsed Raman for mayor and is supporting her campaign.
“I had push polls that said I was going to lose by a landslide,” Mejia wrote on his social media accounts. “We ended up landsliding our opponent & set a record for most votes ever received in a LA primary.”