Poll Suggests Buscaino Leading in Absentee Ballots; Opponents Doubt Its Validity

An internal poll conducted by his campaign suggests LAPD officer Joe Buscaino is in the lead when it comes to the vote-by-mail ballots already filed with the City Clerk’s Offce.

Of the Fifteenth District voters who sent their ballots into the clerk’s office during the first two weeks of absentee voting, 10 percent received a robo call last weekend that asked which candidate they voted for. Buscaino polled at more than 40 percent, significantly ahead of Assemblyman Warren Furutani, former president of the firefighters’ union Pat McOsker, former city Councilman Rudy Svorinich and the seven other candidates on the ballot.

Consultants for the Furutani and McOsker campaigns scoffed at the poll, saying it is unreliable because it was done as a robo call and included too small of a sample.

“Ha! Buscaino is trying to distract voters from the revelation that he was a Republican during the Bush years and just registered as a Democrat last year to run for office,” said Jeff Millman with the McOsker campaign. ”I doubt this poll actually happened, but if it did, it’s certainly meaningless.”

In response to the suggestion that the poll was not conducted, Eric Hogensen with Buscaino’s campaign told The City Maven, “This poll is real, and we can’t think of a single negative thing to say about Pat McOsker. He has served this city honorably as a first responder, and we respect that.”

The poll may be in Buscaino’s favor as 63 percent of the early voters have been from the San Pedro neighborhood of the district. Buscaino strongly identifies as a lifelong resident of San Pedro.

The City Clerk had received a total of 4,339 vote-by-mail ballots as of Wednesday morning.

The primary is set for Nov. 8