PAPOR Hosts Western States and 2012 Election Panel

For nearly a decade, the pollsters and political scientists from western states have gathered in San Francisco to discuss the most recent election and provide some projections concerning the next cycle.

The Sir Francis Drake Hotel will again be the site of the PAPOR Conference (Pacific Chapter of the American Association of Public Opinion Research) on December 6 and 7.  And, PAPOR again hosts the Western States panel with the dean of California pollsters from Field Research, Mark DiCamillo; Anthony Salvanto, who directs the CBS News Poll; and Paul Lavrakas, the current president of AAPOR. Also joining the panel is Eric McGhee from the Public Policy Institute of California, the state’s leading public policy think tank.  I will discuss Colorado’s battleground status in the 2012 election.

The Western States roundtable will present the western states’ political contests in the 2012 election and the region’s impact on national politics.  A panel on the West has the benefit of a presidential election dominated by a targeted battleground strategy, a host of western toss-up states and a series of close senate races, many with a surfeit of polling data.

Although California, our largest western state, was not a presidential battleground, its politics was significantly affected by reforms in its electoral rules and several ballot issues, which address its fundamental state fiscal policy and politics.

Panel Topics

Mark DiCamillo, Field Research.  California’s Ballot Issues – State of Citizen Governance in the 2012 Election

Eric McGhee, Public Policy Institute of California.  California’s Latest Electoral Reforms – More Competition?

Floyd Ciruli, Ciruli Associates, Colorado.  Colorado – A Preeminent Toss-Up State

Anthony Salvanto, CBS News.  Comparing and Contrasting the 2012 Battleground States

Paul Lavrakas, Independent Consultant, AAPOR President.  Hits and Misses in 2012 Election Polling