Poll policy

Several in our Politics Extra community here have asked about how we handle candidate-funded polls. They're good questions. Since I'm in charge of political coverage, I thought I'd answer them.


For consistency's sake, I have decided that stories about candidate-funded polls should go only on the blog.

Stories based on independent polls (like The Ohio Poll) may run in the Enquirer.

Here's why.

Candidate-funded polls lack the legitimacy of independent polls. By their very nature, they're funded by someone with an agenda, someone with an interest in the poll's outcome. They're not intended to serve our general readership; they're intended to serve politicians and the political community.

Sometimes they're merely subtle "push" polls.

Candidates usually release only the polls showing themselves ahead, though they may do polling showing otherwise. These are often geared to fundraising.

They often refuse to release the full script and cross tabs.

Plus, there are a lot of candidate-funded polls; we'd be running story after story in the paper about polls - or face charges of bias.

On the blog, we can run every local poll that comes our way. And we pretty much do. You send it, we'll post it.

As for other questions:

I have no control over the Kentucky Enquirer or what appears in it.

Nor can I speak to what we might have run before I arrived in April, 2005.

We will occasionally mention the results of candidate-funded poll as part of a larger stories on a race.

But do they merit placement in the Enquirer paper on their own? No - they're for political insiders and political junkies - like you, the folks who read this blog.

Thank you for reading, and thanks especially for all the comments and feedback we get.

Carl Weiser
Government/Public Affairs editor and
Administrator of the Politics Extra blog
cweiser@enquirer.com