Election 2006 Polls - Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

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Source: Public Opinion Strategies (R) (url)

Candidate		Political Party	Poll	Graph	Poll Details
	Cardin^	Democratic	47%		Poll Date: 2006-10-04
	Steele	Republican	43%		Number Polled: 800
	Zeese	Green	2%		Margin of Error: 4%
	Undecided	-	6%		Voter Type: Registered

^ = Incumbent Party (Current Senator Retiring)

Cardin(D) has a narrow lead on Steele(R)

By: Olawakandi (G-CA) - 2006-10-05 @ 12:05:07

Question:If the election for United States Senate were being held today, for whom would you vote...(READ AND ROTATE FIRST TWO NAMES)

Ben Cardin (D) 47%
Michael Steele (R) 43%
Kevin Zeese (G) 2%
Undecided 6%

About this PollPoll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for the NRSC, 800 interviews conducted 10/2-10/4; margin of error 3.5 percent.)

View All Maryland Polls

Poll Technical Comments

By: Vorlon (L-AB) - 2006-10-05 @ 16:35:36

Public Opinion Strategies is an exceptionally good firm, but they are also a very partisan firm.. A big "R" should go beside any poll from this company.

By: Olawakandi (G-CA) - 2006-10-05 @ 17:58:03

Yea, but the Survey USA poll had it close and it isn't R I don't think this is out of step with that one.

By: Vorlon (L-AB) - 2006-10-05 @ 23:06:16

My comment was not intended to discredit the reliability or accuracy of this poll in any way.

I was simply pointing out that any firm with a very clear and partisan affiliation should clearly be labeled as such.

Public Opinion Strategies (R)
Democracy Corps (D)

Public Opinion Strategies is, in my opinion, one of the two or three best polling firms in existance, but they are still a very, very deeply GOP firm.

I actually think this poll is just about dead on BTW.

By: Smash255 (D-NY) - 2006-10-06 @ 02:55:34

Olawandi, regardless if you think a poll is accurate or not, any Internal Poll should be desingnated as such.

I think Vorlon aka the poll master touched on this while back (correct me if I am wrong Vorlon), POS is generally a strong pollster, but at times their can be a bit of a difference between their real poll which stays in house, and the one that actually gets released to the public, which can be a bit more GOP friendly than the real in house one, and it can be tough to tell the difference between when they release the real poll, and when they relase the GOP happy face poll

By: Vorlon (L-AB) - 2006-10-07 @ 10:06:18

Smash255 correctly represents my position on this matter.

Public Opinion Strategies (R) is an exceptionally talented firm. Certainly in the top 2 or 3 firms anywhere. This is why such a vast array of GOP Senators and Congress people use their services.

But POS's goal with their polling (and other services) is, to quote their own President "To alter the political reality, not to measure it"

The public perception of a race impacts many factors that actually feedback to alter the political reality. - The amount of free media and ability to fundraise are but two obvious factors directly impacted by the percieved closeness of a race.

POS will happily invoke black magic, quantum mechanics, general relativity, dice, a ouiji board and the chanted incantations of Bhudist monks if that is what is required to produce the most politically helpful poll result for their client.

POS is a great firm, and I deeply respect their talents, but the big (R) next to their name means any poll they release should be viewed with great care - just as a poll coming coming from MoveON.org or any other similarly partisan organization should also be viewed with care.

Last Edit: 2006-10-07 @ 10:10:16

By: Olawakandi (G-CA) - 2006-10-07 @ 11:44:59

But POS correctly said that Lieberman is leading by wide margins and they did predict that accuately.

By: leip (I-NY) - 2006-10-07 @ 13:17:13

Thanks for the feedback Vorlon - I've added the political affiliation of the polling firm next to the name (with a hover title). I currently only have the following partisan info on the polls in the database:
R: Ayres McHenry & Associates
R: Public Opinion Strategies
D: Democracy Corps

Any others, if you could please forward in an email.
Thanks,
Dave

Last Edit: 2006-10-07 @ 13:17:35

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