Word: pollstering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...official Reagan committee and the independent groups also shared a pollster, a political consultant, a direct mail firm, a telephone solicitation firm, and in one case an assistant treasurer. These overlaps, however small, seem to cast doubt whether Helms's idea of "independent" is what Congress had in mind. Reestablishing the $1000 limit each PAC could spend on a candidate who has accepted public funds would eliminate this danger...
...Bradley beaten because of his race? Probably. California Pollster Mervin Field found that "race was a major factor." The margin, in any case, was slight, 52,000 out of 7.4 million votes...
Only 6% of the voters, according to President Reagan's own pollster, Richard Wirthlin, completely believe in the New Right agenda. Nonetheless, the New Right leadership last week saw no need to compromise. The Moral Majority's Ron Godwin vowed renewed efforts for school prayer and against abortion. And Fund Raiser Richard Viguerie, searching for new motivating issues, called for an anti-elitist "new populist revolt." At a somber New Right election-night party, Viguerie declared, "If we win or lose, it's not our doing. God's will is going to be done...
...Governor, vs. 17 for NBC and 16 for CBS. A crucial tool for the networks was the "exit poll" of randomly chosen voters at some ten to 75 precincts per state, for a total of up to 36,000 people per network. The technique was pioneered by CBS Pollster Warren Mitofsky in 1967; since the 1980 primaries it has been a favorite statistical gizmo of all three networks. Voters are handed anonymous questionnaires asking their age, sex, race and political attitudes, as well as which candidates they chose. Exit polling can be intrusive: officials in the state of Washington alleged...
...older a person gets, the more likely he or she is to vote, but the less likely to participate in an exit poll." Adds another network vote counter: "You cannot mathematically calculate the sampling error in an exit poll." Once results are in, in order to use them a pollster must guess the eventual percentages of turnout by age, race, ideology and so on. Warns I.A. Lewis, whose exit poll for the Los Angeles Times was 10 points off on both of California's major races: "Exit polls are tools to analyze. It is foolhardy to base projections...