By The Washington Times (Politics) | Created at 2026-08-20 22:05:51 | Updated at 2026-08-20 22:18:18
1 hour ago
A fake poll caused some mayhem in the Los Angeles mayor’s race. Now people are wondering whether there’s anything that can be done about it.
An outfit calling itself Median Strategies released what it said were results of a survey taken in late July and early August showing incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leading her opponent, city Councilwoman Nithya Raman, by nearly 12 percentage points.
Median Strategies now says it was a “short-term social experiment” designed to test how vulnerable politics and journalism were to fake results.
It’s exactly the sort of thing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission warned about in 2024, when it tried to bar online betting on the outcomes of political races. The CFTC, in trying to deny Kalshi a license to offer contracts on political races, said fake polls could be used to manipulate the market, allowing insiders to swoop in and buy at distorted prices.
No evidence has emerged, but the idea that the poll was an attempt at manipulation has made the rounds on social media.
“Seemed like it was an attempt to influence [Kalshi] pricing,” Paul Mitchell, a political data guru, said on X.
The CFTC didn’t respond to an inquiry this week from “Seen, Heard & Whispered,” and we’ve been told that there doesn’t appear to be a criminal probe into Median Strategies at this point.
Some legal experts suggest there would need to be a financial loss for the company to face charges.
“If someone could demonstrate they had financial losses because of the fake poll, there could be a case for common law fraud,” said Rick Hasen, an election law scholar who teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Can they get their deposit back?
Alexander Vindman was so confident of victory in Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary in Florida that several days before the vote, he sent out an invitation to a “victory fund” fundraiser to be held this weekend in the liberal enclave of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
But there was no victory Tuesday.
Mr. Vindman was swamped in the primary by state Rep. Angie Nixon, who triumphed by 12 points while running on a democratic socialist platform.
Now Mr. Vindman’s problem isn’t raising more money, but figuring out what to do with the millions he kept in his campaign account, unspent, which he figured he’d use in the general election.
“Seen, Heard & Whispered’s” source, who passed the invitation along, said people who received it are texting each other and joking, “Uh, is this still on?”
Mr. Vindman testified about President Trump’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment.
Florida Republicans buy local
Republicans in Florida’s 19th Congressional District had their pick of 10 candidates, several of them former congressmen and still others who’d run before, all of them in other parts of the country.
But they stuck with the local guy.
Jim Schwartzel, the only one of the candidates with deep roots in southwest Florida, won the primary Tuesday, despite being outspent and not having Mr. Trump’s endorsement.
Mr. Schwartzel said his victory as a native is symbolic.
“Southwest Florida sent a clear message: this congressional seat belongs to Southwest Florida,” he said after his victory. “This is my home. It always has been and it always will be. I will never forget who I represent or why I ran. Thank you Southwest Florida!”
One politico told “Seen, Heard & Whispered” it was “the most expensive congressional race in Southwest Florida history.”
The seat was left open when Rep. Byron Donalds decided against reelection, instead seeking the governorship. He won the GOP primary.
• Seen, Heard & Whispered is a weekly column taking you inside the conversations happening in Washington’s power corridors, the moves being made and the whispers that explain what’s really going on in the nation’s capital. Email tips to [email protected]. Click here to receive this in your inbox every Friday morning.
