A Muslim candidate for the Orlando City Council said Thursday that her religion should not be a campaign issue, after voters described a phone poll that asked whether her faith would sway their vote.
Asima Azam, a real estate attorney seeking to unseat District 3 Commissioner Robert Stuart, said she had heard from about a dozen people since late last week who were contacted for the poll.
“To the extent that the opponent or the opponent’s campaign wants to use tactics which persuade voters to vote for one side or the other based on faith, I find that offensive,” she said. “That’s certainly not something I’m going to be doing.”
In an emailed response to calls seeking comment, Stuart wouldn’t say if he was involved in the poll. “As a rule, I don’t, nor do any campaigns of which I’m familiar, discuss the internal workings of a campaign,” he wrote.
However, he said he had no plans to discuss Azam’s religion.
“Considering my roles as both a commissioner and ministry leader, I have not made any statements about her faith nor do I plan on doing so,” said Stuart, executive director for the Christian Service Center. He is seeking a fourth four-year City Council term.
Records show Stuart’s campaign paid about $10,000 last month to Millennium Consulting, a firm run by public relations consultant John Dowless. Reached by email, Dowless said he was “not at liberty nor would [he] speak about the inner workings of a campaign.”
Two District 3 residents who spoke to the Orlando Sentinel said the poll seemed at first to be a standard campaign questionnaire but also asked several questions about faith they considered unusual.
“They would ask a question like, ‘Would the fact that Asima is an American Muslim make you more or less likely to vote for her?’ ” said David Rose, a real estate agent who lives in College Park.
He said the caller also asked about his own religious beliefs and for his opinion on Stuart’s work at the Christian Service Center.
Matt Lonam, also of College Park, described a similar experience. He acknowledged he has donated to Azam’s campaign. He said he met her though their Rotary club and considers her a friend.
“This is the first poll I’ve ever gotten that made me angry or made me think I was being used somehow,” he said.
Rose has at times clashed with the City Council during Stuart’s time on the panel, including as a vocal opponent of duplex regulations that Stuart voted to approve in April. However, he said he isn’t enamored with either candidate in the District 3 race.
“I have made a serious effort to try to find a conservative to run,” he said. “At this point, I don’t think that I’m going to be able to do that.”
In his email, Stuart said Azam is “the only person who has made her faith an issue” in the City Council race, citing interviews with the Orlando Sentinel and WOFL-Fox 35 in which she discussed the possibility of being the city’s first Muslim commissioner.
Azam said she has discussed her faith when asked, but “that’s not something that I’m campaigning on ... in any way, shape or form.”
Orlando’s City Council elections are Nov. 7.