Senate Candidate Troy Hebert Sues Pollster For Allegedly Misrepresenting Him In Poll

Senate candidate Troy Hebert is suing Southern Media and Opinion Research pollster Bernie Pinsonat claiming he misrepresented him in a May poll. Hebert says the poll listed him under the wrong party affiliation.

“This poll misidentified me as a Republican instead of being an Independent. Therefore I didn’t qualify for two forums, and unfortunately the only regress I had is to go to court,” Hebert said.

Hebert says he is not seeking damages in the suit, but it would be up to the judge to decide whether or not to award him any money in this case.

“Any and all damages would be donated to the St. Jude Children’s Hospital because this poll has nothing to do with damages. It has everything to do with being fair in this election,” Hebert said.

But Pinsonat says identifying Hebert as an Independent certainly wouldn’t have helped his numbers. He says it’s not his fault that Hebert was excluded from a forum because of the poll, and he is not responsible for the decisions those organizations make.

“I don’t have any control over organizations, and I don’t recommend that you use any poll to make a determination because polls are subjective,” Pinsonat said.

Pinsonat says polls always have potential margins of error and should not be used in these kinds of cases because of that margin. He says using the poll was their decision, and he didn’t have anything to do with that.

“Some of them claim they use polls. Do they really use them? They may use the numbers, but they’re certainly not interpreting them or using them correctly,” Pinsonat said.