There has been controvery this week about a polling firm which has conducted polls in Iowa. Politico has a piece today, talking about the Research 2000 polls in the U.S. Senate race in Arkansas. Here’s the Research 2000 website, which features on its front page a map about President Obama’s poll ratings, but the map hasn’t been updated since April 11, 2010.
This debate started when Markos Moulitsas (the founder of Daily Kos) accused the company of manipulating data. Daily Kos used the firm for many of its polls in the past year and a half. The Des Moines TV station KCCI has used Research 2000 as well.
Only a few Iowa bloggers have been talking about the controversy. A Research 2000 poll for KCCI in late May, early June showing a close race in Iowa between Chuck Grassley and Roxanne Conlin, while another firm’s poll soon after showed Grassley far ahead of Conlin. Bleeding Heartland has a post on the controversy, as does The Iowa Independent.
Greg Sargent of The Washington Post has looked at the lawsuit filed against Research 2000. Pollster.com has a piece on the controversy, too. This afternoon, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com did more analysis, focusing on the number of polls Research 2000 was doing for Daily Kos and the amount and timing of payment for said polls.
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
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