Portland Chamber of Commerce behind survey targeting progressive challengers to Dem incumbents

When Mike Weisdorf gets a call or text inviting him to participate in a survey, he generally accepts the offer.

But he was surprised by the direction of one such phone survey he took on April 20 with “Jen” from CS Research.

“I thought this one was a little odd, and it was pretty laser-focused on this House district Democratic primary between Daniel Nguyen and Waz,” he said.

Weisdorf lives in Oregon’s 38th House District near Lake Oswego, where business-friendly incumbent and moderate Democratic Rep. Daniel Nguyen is being challenged by progressive John “Waz” Wasielewski, a Lake Oswego middle school teacher.

Weisdorf didn’t even know it was a contested primary, and the survey was the first he was hearing of Nguyen’s challenger.

The pollster told him that Wasielewski is “too extreme,” and “is supported by Democratic Socialists,” who “want to end the private ownership of housing and take property from landowners to give it to people who don’t own land” and “fight for the abolition of capitalism.” He said she read straight off of the same online survey he got via text the same day. Then she asked if, knowing all this, would he be more or less likely to vote for Wasielewski?

“I could see what they’re doing there. I personally am fairly critical of capitalism, and I’m not scared by that language, but it definitely seemed like they were trying everything they could think of to paint his [Wasielewski’s] campaign in a negative way,” Weisdorf said.

These types of surveys aren’t uncommon in state politics, as candidates and their supporters or detractors test messages that could make voters more or less likely to support candidates. In this case, the Capital Chronicle confirmed that a political action committee affiliated with the Portland Metro Chamber of Commerce paid for the surveys, as well as messaging polls in Washington County.

Neither the online surveys nor phone calls divulged that the Portland Metro Chamber of Commerce, a business association representing more than 2,000 area businesses, was behind them. The chamber’s Portland Alliance PAC has poured thousands of dollars into Democratic primary races for incumbents and moderates being challenged by progressives and Democratic Socialists in recent weeks.

Jon Isaacs, the Metro Chamber’s vice president for public affairs, confirmed to the Capital Chronicle on Wednesday that two recent payments recorded on Oregon’s campaign finance repository from the Portland Alliance PAC totaling $43,000 to Chicago-based Elevated Campaigns for “polls/surveys” were for the surveys that went to House District 38 and Washington County voters.

Isaacs said it is a normal activity for the group to conduct public opinion research, and to do so without putting their name on surveys, which is essential to getting unbiased responses. The goal was to see how voters felt about some of the Washington County and state primary races where progressive candidates or Democratic Socialist candidates were running.

“We’ve observed much stronger campaign activity from the Democratic Socialists of America, who typically have kept their activism to Portland and the real Democratic or progressive strongholds. And that was, frankly, a surprise this election cycle,” he said. “So we wanted to test whether the agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America, the goals of the organization, are resonating with voters in Washington County.”

Jake Foster, the Portland-based political strategist and consultant for Elevated Campaigns, did not respond to a Capital Chronicle email asking for details about the survey, but CS Research comes up on Facebook and Reddit threads from across the country. Users post about “Jen,” “Lily” and “Adrian” with CS Research, asking who they are related to surveys about airport expansion in Connecticut and political issues in Germantown, Tennessee.

Wasielewski, the target of the Metro Chamber survey, points out several issues with it. For one, he’s not officially endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, nor is he running as one. Several people sent the survey link to him over the last couple weeks, he said, but like Weisdorf, he did not know Portland Metro Chamber was behind it until the Capital Chronicle told him.

He characterized the surveys as a “red scare” tactic.

“They need to paint me as a scary guy, because they know that a middle school teacher is what people want in elected office. People don’t want big money running their state. So they’re using their big money to try and tear me down,” he said.

Hazel Tylinski, a spokesperson for Nguyen’s campaign, said they didn’t know about the poll until a supporter sent a screenshot of it.

Milo Wadlin, a Washington County voter, said the CS Research representative on the phone who called him for the survey, “was saying some candidate wanted to let workers own the means of production, or they were endorsed by DSA, which wants workers to own the means of production, and the idea was that it would scare you,” he said.

Isaacs said the questions were not hyperbolic about the candidates or the Democratic Socialists of America, and though Fai and Wasielewski are not running as Democratic Socialists, they’ve been identified as candidates that the party is encouraging people to vote for.

“We simply tested the language that the DSA uses when explaining their policy agenda and their goals. So I understand why it’s alarming to people in the community, because it’s alarming. So that’s not a surprise to me,” he said.

The Washington County survey focused on attitudes about Myrna Muñoz, a Democratic Socialist running against Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, and asked whether voters are more worried about grocery prices, utility bills or data centers. Both the 38th House District and Washington County surveys were still open Wednesday morning, but by Wednesday afternoon had “ended” following Capital Chronicle questions to Metro Chamber and Elevated Campaigns.

The Washington County survey also asked questions about Beaverton School Board member Tammy Carpenter, a Working Families Party candidate running in the Democratic primary for the 27th House District that is being vacated by moderate Democrat Rep. Ken Helm, of Beaverton, and offered statements characterizing Nafisa Fai, another Working Families Candidate running for chair of the Washington County Commission, as extreme and far-left. Fai has been critical of the commission’s years of greenlighting data center expansion in the area.

In addition to paying for the surveys, Metro Chamber recently donated $5,000 to Carpenter’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg, and gave $10,000 to the political action committee of Pam Treece, who is running against Fai. The PAC has also given $1,100 apiece in in-kind contributions to Nguyen and Portland-area Democratic Reps. Mari Watanabe and Shannon Isadore in the form of “management services” paid to the Rally Point in Portland.

Weisdorf said he was not entirely surprised to learn the Metro Chamber was behind the survey he was sent, but the lack of transparency didn’t sit well and he didn’t like a Portland-based business group getting involved in politics in his area on the edge of Multnomah County or in Washington County.

“I don’t think it reflects well on that organization. I mean, it’s not the District 38 Metro Chamber of Commerce, or whatever,” he said.

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Bluesky.

This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.