What is the Republican/Gallup connection again? I forgot

[in_cog_ni_to]

and want to let CNN know we know about Gallup and how they're connected to the repuke party. I want to have my facts straight though. Thanks!

[TomClash]

1. I think Gallup and Bush are distant cousins

Historically, Gallup was the Republican pollster and Harris was the Democratic pollster. That has since evaporated, though I still think Gallup is biased towards Republicans.

Maybe Democratsincebirth can shed some light?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. When I Was A Kid They Said That...

That Gallup was the "Republican" pollster and Harris was the "Democratic" pollster....


Shouldn't the numbers just be objective...


Harris was a liberal and JFK's personal pollster... He used to be the in house pollster for ABC News....


There was some controversy in the 80 race in the way he was interpreting the numbers to favor Ted Kennedy in the primaries..

He definitely did not make the numbers up but was accused of putting his own spin on it...

[whistle]

2. The Dewy campaign against Truman in 1948 and the famous....

....picture of Harry S Truman holding up the newspaper the morning after the election where the headline that was printed before all of the polls were counted that said, "Dewey Wins". I think the republicans paid off George Gallup following that and used his organization ever since, because his research had come closest to the real results of the election.

[NewJeffCT]

3. wow, lots of different stories

I had heard that the new guy that heads Gallup is a born-again fundie Christian who has donated to Bush's campaigns.

[unfrigginreal]

4. Here's a start

"They're all Republicans!"

But is all this just a matter of mere technique, or is something else going on? There may well be some hidden partisan bias at work.

As the blogger Kos reported, in June 2003, Gallup's CEO James Clifton gave $2,000 to a very right-wing Republican who was running for Senate, Herman Cain. Journalists are not supposed to do these things; many newspapers are even forbidding reporters to go to the Kerry benefit concerts headlined by Bruce Springsteen, since the proceeds go to the Democratic campaign. Taking this concern for appearances to an absurd extreme, former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee didn't even vote. But this notion of ethics doesn't extend to the CEO of the world's most famous pollster.

Since I'm a paying member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), I subscribe to their electronic discussion list, AAPORnet. When I raised some questions about an apparent pro-Bush bias in the Gallup numbers on the list, I was met with mostly hostile responses; one participant even characterized my questions as "sleaze."

But the postings inspired a call from a former Gallup researcher last week, who opened the conversation by saying "They're all Republicans!" Well, not all, he clarified - just most of the senior people, like editor-in-chief Frank Newport and senior editor Lydia Saad. (An exception is Democrat David Moore, a senior analyst.) Saad and Newport have not yet responded to emailed requests for comments.

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Gallup.html

[whistle]

6. Maybe this will shed some more light....

<snip>
Republican bias at Gallup?
by Doug Henwood

<snip>

Gallup provides a breakdown of preference by partisan self-identification (see table below). If you rerun their numbers using the Times/CBS party ID weights, you get a ten-point Kerry lead; if you rerun them using the exit poll weights from the last two presidential elections, you get a six-point Kerry lead. Most pollsters object to weighting raw results by party, since partisan identification is unstable over time, and is a reflection of opinion and not a demographic category. True enough, but if you get party IDs so at odds with other renditions of reality, then you should suspect something's wrong with your techniques.

Gallup poll, September 24-26, 2004
presidential preference by party (percent)
Rep Dem Ind
Bush 91 9 38
Kerry 8 88 56

<more at link> http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Gallup.html

It's those pesky weighting factors again or is it?

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Thanks so much for your help!

I appreciate it! :hi: Now, off to write some emails!

[Mike L]

8. Gallup, Jr. is a fundie.