The fundraising survey, received this week by a Post reporter who lives in Northern Virginia, is called the "2009 Obama Agenda Survey" and comes as less than a month remains in the hard-fought gubernatorial race between Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Robert McDonnell for control of the swing-state.

The survey, touching on an array of divisive topics, is accompanied by a letter from GOP chairman Michael S. Steele describing the items in the survey questions as "Obama's top priorities" and declaring, "I want you to know that the Republican Party is not dead."

Some of the 15 questions:

1. Do you agree with Barack Obama's budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion deficit over the next ten years?

3. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?

4. Should English be the official language of the United States?

6. Are you in favor of expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education or work requirements) that Democrats are pushing to pass?

9. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington?

13. Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?"

Surveys designed to persuade rather than survey are a common though dirty tactic in the political arena, the text equivalent of telephone push-polls. The sending of polls for fundraising purposes is also widely considered unethical, a practice known as "frugging" -- fundraising under the guise of research. In August, the RNC suggested in a similarly formatted "Future of American Health Care Survey" that "GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system." Following on outcry from Democrats, a Republican Party spokesperson called that survey "inartfully worded."

For Strategic Vision L.L.C., as for many polling companies, it was a regular practice: for five years the company sent out the results of its surveys on leading political races around the country, and they made their way into blog posts, articles and national television coverage.

But news organizations are rethinking their use of Strategic Vision’s numbers after the company was reprimanded last week by a professional association of pollsters for failing to disclose “essential facts” about its methods.

[...]

Strategic Vision was founded by Mr. Johnson and his wife, Laura Ward, as a Republican-leaning mom-and-pop public relations company in 2002. In 2004, the company branched out into polling, focusing on Senate and presidential races. One of its clients is the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, based in Indiana, which supports the use of government vouchers to send children to private schools.

Like many of its competitors, Strategic Vision issued polls it said were self-financed, as a way of attracting attention and clients. The company was successful in part because its polling was prolific and was often among the earliest on a given race, like the one in which Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, ran for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006.