Why is Edwards pollster Harrison Hickman linked to the Iowa push polling...

A couple of first-hand blog reports about potential push-polling in Iowa sparked a round of reporting about who may have been behind it. NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan reports that spokesmen for all three major Democratic campaigns adamantly denied being connected to the calls. Bill Burton from the Obama campaign called them “abhorrent” while Eric Schultz from the Edwards campaign said, “No in big capital letters.”

So who made the calls? Doing their own research, bloggers on the Edwards site found that Central Research is actually a firm known as Central Marketing Services in New York City, which has been connected to negative message testing before. The liberal blogger Taylor Marsh has found that Central Research is connected to Wilson Research Strategies, a firm that has been tied to push polling before in a local race for mayor’s in Indiana.

Ben Smith’s blog on the Politico reports that he contacted the owner of the firm, Carol McMahon, to ask about the campaigning and received no reply. Smith’s reporting also found that Central Research is also tied to Global Strategies Group, a firm owned by Edwards pollster Harrison Hickman. Central Research was also reported to have done polling against Freddy Ferrer in the New York Mayor’s race in 2005.