http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34433.htmlThe polling firm Strategic Vision is out with its first public poll since facing a barrage of allegations last September that it had extensively falsified data in its political surveys.
In a just-released poll of the Georgia governor's race, the firm shows former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes and Republican state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine leading for their respective parties' nominations. It also shows Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue with a solid, 50-percent approval rating – a finding at odds with a recent Public Policy Polling survey that had Perdue's approval number at just 29 percent.
Despite Strategic Vision's reputation, Perdue spokesman Chris Schrimpf emailed the poll to POLITICO in order to push back on the grim numbers in PPP's survey. A local Fox affiliate in Georgia also picked up the results.
The polling company drew a sharp rebuke last year from the American Association for Public Opinion Research, a trade group for pollsters, which rebuked Strategic Vision for refusing to provide methodological information about its polling on the 2008 presidential election. The firm later took a beating from 538.com publisher Nate Silver, who wrote on his popular website that there was a "substantial possibility" that the pollster's data were forged.
It was also reported that the addresses listed at the time for Strategic Vision's offices matched the locations of UPS stores, rather than genuine offices, raising further questions about the pollster's authenticity.
Strategic Vision CEO David Johnson told POLITICO that the lull in his firm's work had represented a deliberate choice to take some time off in the light of the allegations and let the scrutiny subside. He also said a family illness prevented him from polling the Georgia gubernatorial race earlier in the year.
"Some of the stuff was getting to me. I felt it was best to take some time off," Johnson said. "You know the old adage – lawyers should never defend themselves. I should never try to be my own PR person."
After facing questions about his methodology, Johnson threatened to sue both the trade association and Silver, but never followed through on the charges.
Contacted Monday, Silver said he was unimpressed by Strategic Vision's steps back into the open.
"Until Strategic Vision is willing to reveal even the most basic facts about their polling operation — including information as fundamental as where their calling center is — the presumption should be overwhelmingly that their polling is fraudulent and any newspaper or website editor who lists one of their polls should be fired for gross incompetence," Silver told POLITICO.
Johnson said that for its most recent poll, the firm interviewed 800 likely voters in Georgia by phone between March 5-8 by telephone, with a 3.5-percent margin of error.
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