Poll position

A month ago, the Guardian received a press release claiming "Fiona Ma holds commanding lead" in her Assembly race against Janet Reilly. It was based on a poll conducted by Ben Tulchin of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showing Ma with 70 percent support and less than 14 percent undecided after pollsters had gone through their spiel.

It seemed pretty unbelievable for a race that most politicos assume will be a close one, and not just because we've had bad past experiences with Tulchin's deceptive polls on behalf of downtown darlings like Mills Corp. and the Chinese American Voter Education Project.

So we asked for the poll questions, which the campaign and Tulchin refused to provide. That's a shame because we really wanted to read their "positive" statements about Reilly, which actually caused support for her to drop, making us pretty positive that they weren't terribly positive.

As in our past conversations with Tulchin, he insisted on his credibility as a pollster — telling us "I can't do push polls and be credible" — although he also claims the titles of strategist and consultant, making clear his advocacy role — and increasing our skepticism about a press release touting poll numbers they won't back up.

Oh, and there's one more title that belongs by Tulchin's name: fundraiser. Tulchin and his wife, Laurie Beijen, are throwing a fundraiser for Ma March 9. (Steven T. Jones)

www.sfbg.com/39/07/news_election.html

www.sfbg.com/40/06/news_mills2.html

Somebody get these people a library card

In mid-March, Burrill and Company, a self-described "life sciences merchant bank," will host "The Stem Cell Meeting" in San Francisco. It's pretty clear the conference is designed to provide potential investors with an opportunity to hobnob with scientists, bioetch execs, and officials from California's stem-cell institute. And though the focus on moneymaking leaves some biotech watchdogs a little peeved, it isn't all that surprising.

What is surprising is the conference's title: "Brave New Cells."

It's an obvious nod to Aldous Huxley's 1932 classic, Brave New World, but we can't begin to comprehend why Burrill and Company would want to connect its work with that novel. Yes, Brave New World depicts a well-oiled society in which violence, poverty, and even worry have been eliminated by reproductive control and technological innovation. But the novel is satiric — and its careful description of a soul-depleting biocaste system illuminates the dangers of tinkering with human biology.

If the biotech industry wants to show it is mindful of the tricky ethical issues bound up with regenerative medicine and genetics, this hardly seems like a good approach. (Tali Woodward)

We've got a winner

The award for most craptastic residential hotel in the city goes to the Baldwin House, a five-story crash pad in the heart of skid row at 74 Sixth St. City records show housing inspectors last year cited the 188-room joint for nearly 400 code violations, significantly more than any other SRO. Key issues: nonlocking doors, dead smoke detectors, a missing fire extinguisher, faulty wiring, and rodents.

We contacted owner Mike Amin by phone for comment. His only statement before hanging up: "No. I'm sorry." The tax assessor valued Amin's trouble-plagued structure at $3.7 million in 2005.

"The Baldwin House has had more serious problems in the past," Jamie Sanbonmatsu, head of the Department of Building Inspection's Code Enforcement Outreach Program, says. "But the sheer volume of violations is pretty unprecedented." According to Sanbonmatsu, "about 80 percent" of the problems have been fixed, and the hotel seems to be willing to work with the city on the remainder. (A.C. Thompson)