Monday, December 13, 2021

Wall Street Journal Changes Pollsters

In a front page story on Wednesday, December 8, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the work of its new pollsters: John Anzalone of ALG Research, a Democratic pollster for Joe Biden, and Tony Fabrizio of Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, a Republican pollster for Donald Trump. They both polled for then-candidates’ presidential campaigns and conduct polls today for them. They replaced longtime WSJ pollsters Democrat Peter Hart (or members of his firm) of Hart Research Associates and Republican Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.

The WSJ claims the new pollsters “have stood apart with iconoclastic approaches and cutting-edge techniques that have responded to the moment and delivered clear results for their clients.” They will use larger sample sizes and “cutting-edge sampling methodology.”

The WSJ had partnered with NBC News for three decades and are now on their own (see Steve Kornacki election). The last joint poll conducted in 2020 showed Joe Biden winning by 11 points. He was up 7 in what was a very close race in electoral votes. The entire polling industry has been struggling with the election results, which reflect, it is believed, non-responses and missed Trump voters.

The latest WSJ poll did not break any new ground. “Voters Signal Peril for Democrats” is old polling news, but the comments of the two pollsters were a lot more adversarial than before. The reporters and editors will have more work finding a scientifically-based interpretation between two highly engaged candidate advocates and protectors.

Steve Kornacki in 2020 election | MSNBC photo

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