NY Observer: Polling a Sheldon Silver Primary?

Last month, a market-research firm called my Lower East Side apartment to gauge my support for Paul Newell.

I admitted that I had never heard Newell's name before, and the caller quickly explained that Newell will challenge my state assemblyman-Speaker Sheldon Silver-in the Democratic primary in September.

The caller told me Newell is 32, worked as a community organizer and lives on the Lower East Side. Then he presented positive statements about Newell and Silver, followed by negative statements about Silver. He asked me to say if the statements would make me "more likely" or "less likely" to vote for that candidate. Then it was over, but the origin of the call was a mystery. ...