Polling the rival camp

Erin Neff

Monday, June 26, 2000 | 11:47 a.m.

The last person Paul Worlie expected on the other end of the phone he answered at his home last week was a John Ensign pollster.

Worlie, who manages Ed Bernstein's campaign against Ensign for U.S. Senate, was decidedly "taken aback."

"What do you think the odds of that are?" he asked.

But the shock quickly wore off and Worlie used the call like any good intelligence gatherer in a federal race. He began taking notes and examining how the questions could be used by his opponent's campaign.

"I was kind of disturbed by it. The things that they were asking were clearly looking for negative stuff to go against us with," Worlie said.

Ensign's campaign manager, Mike Slanker, laughed at Worlie's concern.

"Was it a slow news day for the Bernstein camp?" Slanker asked. "Survey research is a critical part of a campaign. We do it. They do it. Everybody does it.

"I guess I'm glad to hear Paul Worlie's a Nevada voter," Slanker added.

Worlie said the pollster specifically asked about prescription drugs, leading him to believe that Ensign, a Republican, needed some data to attack Bernstein's announced plan to deal with the rising costs of prescription drugs.

Bernstein is the Democratic candidate for Senate in the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.

"Clearly what this shows is that they don't have a plan of their own," Worlie said. "Clearly we have a plan that Nevadans are responding to."

Worlie added that he hoped the poll wasn't evidence that Ensign's campaign was going to go negative.

"I would hope this is not a sign of what's going to go in the future," Worlie said.

Slanker restated his campaign's position: "We will not throw the first punch, but we will defend ourselves if attacked."