More phantom poll numbers have arrived at Mixed Media. Today Birmingham radio talk show host Frank Matthews showed us another phantom poll, which he claims was commissioned by Alabama Power. Normally, our approach to these things is incredulous, to say the least. However, the documentation along with the poll seemed thorough enough to vouch for its methodology, if not its authenticity.

The phantom poll, taken among 601 likely Birmingham voters between Jan. 23 and 26, showed good news for Jefferson County Commissioner Larry Langford, and mediocre to bad news for all the rest. Get the breakdown after the jump.

Larry Langford: 41.3 percent,
Undecided: 15.5 percent,
Bernard Kincaid: 12.8 percent,
William Bell: 8.3 percent,
Carole Smitherman: 6.7 percent,
Valerie Abbott: 4.8 percent,
Patrick Cooper: 4.2 percent,
No answer: 3.7 percent,
Bob Jones: 1.5 percent,
Frank Matthews: 1.3 percent.

The poll claimed a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent, and a confidence level of 95 percent. In short, if the election were held on the days the poll was taken, it could predict the accuracy within a range of 8 percent 95 times out of a 100.

Cross tabulations provided with the poll indicated that the less money a respondent made, the more likely he or she was to vote for Langford. The potential of an SEC investigation into Langford had little effect on his popularity according to the poll, while 18 percent of respondents said that such an investigation would make them more likely to vote for Langford.

Nothing included within the documentation indicated who conducted the poll or who commissioned it. Matthews said that a lobbyist friend from Montgomery had conducted the poll, but he refused to say which one.

The poll asked respondents to give, in their own words, their primary issues of concern going into the 2007 Birmingham mayoral election. Overwhelmingly, the respondents cited violence and crime problems as their most important issue, while some others said leadership/government cooperation, education/jobs and transportation were of chief concerns to them.

As these polls come to us, we’ve decided that there needs to be some sort of measure, no matter how subjective, of their credibility. On a scale from one to 10 — 10 meaning you can take it to the bank and one being enough BS to fertilize a cabbage patch — this one ranks about a 6.5.

— Kyle Whitmire

EARLIER: Poll Positions