Richard Moore on PPP now and then
Over at Decision 2008 blog I quoted Treasurer Richard Moore talking about Public Policy Polling:
"That polling outfit, I really don't think you guys should even be carrying it. A good poll does not use a computer," Moore said.
He was speaking after Thursday night's UNC-TV debate among candidates for governor.
Now, I will grant you that I would rather have live operators doing the polling. But PPP puts out a lot of surveys and tracking polls on questions of interest to we scruffy media types find useful, if not definitive.
So, just by way of reality check, let's climb in the way-back machine and go to Richard Moore's campaign blog entry from July 16, 2007 under the title "Pollster: Moore's support grows, Perdue's lead shrinks":
A new independent poll shows State Treasurer Richard Moore gaining on Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue in the Democratic primary for governor. For the second month in a row, the Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey shows the race as a statistical dead heat with Perdue at 34%, Moore at 30% and a plurality voters remaining undecided at 36%.
It also uses a little graph of PPP's work and links to more analysis.
Just saying.
Comments (4)
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That's funny.
I hang up on computers, but maybe I'm unusual. How accurate have PPP's polls proven to be in the past?
Posted on January 11, 2008 3:08 PM
PPP is a relatively new outfit. I don't think they were around in the 2004 election, so they've not really had a shot at doing statewide stuff yet.
I will say they have generally tracked with the Elon Poll if they do the same questions in the same way. And I know smaller campaigns have used them for more local races - that's how they've made money if I remember right. And a pollster doesn't stay in business if they can't get somewhere close to right most of the time.
Posted on January 11, 2008 3:14 PM
Mark,
We did polling on the Senate races in Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, and New Jersey the night before the election in 2006 and got all of them right almost to the number.
On a more local level, in 2006 there was a major school bond issue in Wake County. The N&O hired a live call firm to do a poll on it, and it showed the measure would fail miserably. PPP did three surveys that showed the issue passing in a close election. We were right and they were wrong and the paper admitted it:
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/vaden/2006/story/509344.html
Thanks for all your good work.
Posted on January 11, 2008 4:00 PM
Let me say I applaud Bev Perdue for listening to the "people" and quitting a negative campaign. Shame on Richard Moore for continuing to do so with increased viciousness. I may not agree with all of Bev Perdue's decisions (as I do not agree with many of any politicians' decisions), but, I applaud her decision to focus on the issues instead of on ripping her opponent apart, as should be done by ALL politicians. Rest assured that Bev Perdue has my vote. I hope the next time I see Richard Moore that he is saying " You want fries with that?"
Posted on April 29, 2008 6:05 PM