BY SARAH ROSS

PORTLAND- During the past few weeks, complaints and accusations have been flooding in from both political parties on the improper use of phone calls to constituents in Senate Districts 19 and 20.

The two districts, which straddle the Interstate 5 corridor, stretch from Tualatin and Tigard on the west side to Oregon City and West Linn off Interstate 205.

The Leadership Fund, the Republican campaign group for the State Senate, accused Democrats of using “push polling” to promulgate false information and to paint the two Republican candidates running in the districts in an “inaccurate and disparaging light.”

Meanwhile, The Senate Democratic Leadership Fund, the Democrat campaign group, has accused the Republicans of using “robocalls” to residents on the Federal Do Not Call registry which attack the two Democratic incumbent candidates.

Molly Woon, spokeswoman for the SDLF, told the Oregon Politico that her organization’s issue is not about the content of the calls. Rather, the SDLF is concerned that the Republicans are “breaking the law when they call these people that are on the Federal Do Not Call list,” citing an Oregon statute which prohibits automated calls, or “robocalls,” to people listed on the Do Not Call list.

Woon said the SDLF has filed three complaints about this type of calling to the Department of Justice. The SDLF has included the polling firm, the Oregon GOP, and The Leadership Fund in these complaints.

The spokesman for The Leadership Fund, Michael Gay, said he is not familiar with the lists used by pollsters to make calls.

However, he called the complaints a “transparent attempt to completely change the issue.”

“The Attorney General, as I understand it, is pretty shaky on whether or not the robocalls statue is even constitutional,” said Gay. “I think they’re just trying to muddy the water because they know they’ve overstepped their bounds on their poll questions.”

In defense of the polling done by Democratic candidates, Woon denied the use of “push polling.”

“These are regular, standard issues polls done by professional pollsters where we check positives and negatives just like any candidate for any office would do,” said Woon, noting the poll questions could not be shared because they are used to design the SDLF’s races.

Gay acknowledged that “message testing” polls are used by every candidate to test messages that will be used on the campaign trail. The difference, he said, is that “message testing” polls are based on truth, such as records, quotes, and statistics.

“In this case, there’s just absolutely no connection between the [poll] question which brings up issues of racism and sexism, which are very charged issues, and our candidates,” said Gay.

Woon, however, said, “If they are upset about the questions that we’re asking and they feel like they have a legitimate cause to file a complaint, they should go ahead and do so. But they haven’t done so.”

Gay said The Leadership Fund has not filed any complaints because they would prefer the issue not go to court.

“Voters would rather spend time reading about and discussing issues like the economy and jobs than dirty campaign tactics,” said Gay.

He finished by adding, “If it does take litigation to protect the good name of our candidates, than I think that is an option we won’t be afraid to use.”

Woon stated that she didn’t see dealing with complaints as a good use of anyone’s time.

“We want to move on, to run these elections fairly, and to start talking about issues.”