Mayor Karen Bass tweeted — and has since deleted — a fake poll showing her leading in the mayoral race by double digits, falling for a social experiment that was meant to highlight how unverified polling information spreads.
Median Strategies, whose origins remain unclear, said they ran a poll that found Bass led opponent Nithya Raman by nearly 12 percentage points ahead of the November mayoral runoff. The company revealed Monday that the poll was actually fake and “short term social experiment.”
“Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the company said in a statement, first covered by the Los Angeles Times. “We are not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews.”
The company also claimed 16% of its poll’s respondents said they voted for Spencer Pratt in the primary election, and that of those voters, about 85% were planning to vote for Bass in the general election, while about 7% would support Raman. The falsified poll added that the results were based on a survey of 560 Angelenos between July 30 and Aug. 5.
Representatives for Median Strategies did not respond to additional inquiries from TheWrap of its origins and mission. Financial disclosures on its website said no individual involved with the company received compensation or financial benefit from the project, and the project was not funded, commissioned or directed by any candidate, campaign, political party, PAC, media organization, or other outside entity.
Several outlets and media personalities took the poll as fact when it was released last week, including Bass.
“Doing the work, showing up and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” she said in a since-deleted X post from her campaign account, citing Median Strategies as the source.
Responding to Median Strategies effort to spread unverified polling information, a Bass campaign spokesperson told TheWrap, “This poll was reported on by a news outlet. Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Raman’s office also responded to the fake poll — and Bass’ sharing of it — on Monday.
“The Mayor’s campaign promoted a fake poll without properly vetting the source,” a spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement. “It is the latest example of an administration that too often struggles to get the basics right — from promoting a pothole repair before the pothole was fixed to repeatedly giving Boyle Heights residents a Lineage cleanup deadline the company now disputes. Angelenos deserve a mayor who gets the facts right, communicates clearly, and does the work before announcing the result.”
Median Strategies’ website currently displays that it has “concluded its polling project and will not publish additional polls.” The site also states that all previously published polling releases should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data.
