Qualitative Research

Alan Secrest has been polling for 35 years and reached out with some insights into political polling during a crisis:

This week’s Political Consultant is Michael Bocian. He is a founding partner at GBA Strategies, serves as pollster and strategist for gubernatorial, senate, congressional, state legislative, mayoral, and ballot initiative campaigns. With 15 years of experience, he has worked for the DGA, DCCC, DSCC, issue advocacy groups and membership associations.

Advocacy polling is an important foundation for campaigns that are, more often than not, a long haul. They require long-term planning and commitment, and ideally, they have the benefit of staff that has extensive knowledge and policy experience in a particular issue area. That deep knowledge of an issue is incredibly valuable, but it can also create some message obscurity if you’re not careful. In other words, there can be a huge temptation to explain, in minute detail, the many nuances of the issue you’re working on, but that detail (counter-intuitive as it may be) can often be a turnoff for your average supporter.