The left-leaning company does lots of polling in New Mexico and gets hammered by Republicans frequently. I decided to ask about its methodology and funding to better understand the company and its work.
Every time the left-leaning Public Policy Polling comes out with a new survey in New Mexico, Republicans pounce – and the criticism isn’t unique to the Land of Enchantment.
The last time I wrote about the controversy, the state GOP accused PPP of perpetuating polling fraud by including “more Democrat voters in their approval polls than is representative of the state.”
Another time, national Republicans jumped into the fray. The polling company’s Tom Jensen has defended its work in part by pointing to past surveys in New Mexico and elsewhere that were “pretty darn accurate.”
The debate is not insignificant. PPP is doing more publicly released polling in New Mexico than anyone else these days.
Anyway, the company released a new poll of the New Mexico Senate race on Tuesday that showed little change since the last survey. I noticed that this one had higher percentages of women and Hispanics but fewer Democrats than the last. It’s not uncommon for their demographics to change like that from poll to poll.
So I decided to question PPP about it on Twitter. Here are the highlights:
@haussamen we don’t weight for party at all, for gender and race we weight to a range, depends on the response for that individual poll
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) April 24, 2012
Darren White, a prominent Republican, also responded to my initial question:
@haussamen Because @PPP must adjust the demos everytime to produce their desired outcomes. Spin, baby, spin!
— Darren White (@darrenPwhite) April 24, 2012
More discussion:
@haussamen generally 35-40 pct are going to be Hispanic and 51-55 pct are going to be women…but we don’t predetermine an exact number
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) April 24, 2012
@haussamen there are as many weighting strategies as there are polling companies
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) April 24, 2012
I asked about how PPP is funded as well:
@hhaussamen it was an independent poll. We do several of those a week on our own for the public interest
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) April 25, 2012
@haussamen We are a very successful commercial business. tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/just-a… npr.org/2012/03/16/148…
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) April 25, 2012
Brian Walsh, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, inserted his opinion into the discussion:
@haussamen Heath, @ppppolls is a Dem firm funded in large part by SEIU. The idea that their polls are “independent” is laughable.
— Brian Walsh (@brianjameswalsh) April 25, 2012
Of course, my last question was directed at PPP. Their response was, simply, “correct.”
You can learn more about PPP from Wikipedia. You can read the company’s explanation of its methodology here.