While an informed electorate is generally considered essential for a well-functioning democracy, one exception concerns polls for candidates’ relative standing. Critics claim that polls undermine both the incentive to vote as well as the vote itself; thus distorting voting decisions. As a consequence the preferences of the populace are warped by the echo chamber of opinion polls. For this reason, many countries have imposed a ban on the publication of pre-election polling results. (Denter and Sisak 2013)
The poll was conducted by San Diego-based Carr Marketing* for Priorities for Progress**, the current identity of Liam Kerr, also quoted in the CommonWealth Magazine piece. Mr. Kerr wears many hats (see below) but his job is to act as an agent for the WalMart heirs and other oligarchs, quite likely including Amos Hostetter ($100,000 to the pro-Campbell SuperPAC) of the Barr Foundation.
Why just yesterday I was reading an article in CommonWealth Magazine co-authored by Mr. Kerr (that took a gratuitous shot at Campbell’s opponent Shannon Liss-Riordan, coincidentally) beseeching the press and establishment to do a better job informing voters.
This absence of public deliberation on the candidates opens the door for money to have outsized influence. . . . We cannot accept a reality where statewide offices can be decided by infusions of cash by those on the ballot. Our democracy must do a better job of inviting voters to shape their own future.
Where to start?
*An earlier version of this Primary Day post stated that the new poll was conducted by MassInc Polling Group. It was not. I apologize for the error.
** A mid-morning update from CW states “This story was updated to reflect the fact that Priorities for Progress organizers are supporting Campbell.” Also, in the body of the story: “Priorities for Progress organizers are supporting Campbell, but say the poll is ‘research independent of that.’”
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Priorities for Progress paid for a poll by MassInc Polling showing Quentin Palfrey lagging badly in a tight AG race with Shannon Liss-Riordan and Andrea Campbell battling for the top spot and the Globe covered it and before you could say “the only poll that counts is the one on election day” Palfrey was dead and buried. This illustrates how Massachusetts politics can be infuenced by polls with an interest group agenda. Like Priorities for Progress, headed by Liam Kerr.
Although, Andrea Campbell is the front runner. How do we know this? It’s been gospel since a January 2022 poll from Priorities for Progress conducted by MassInc Polling and paid for by for Education Reform Now, also headed (then) by Liam Kerr. According to the lede in Politico Massachusetts Playbook for January 27, 2022: “Former Boston city councilor Andrea Campbell would take an early lead in the race for state attorney general if she gets in, a new poll shows . . . “ The poll “was sponsored by Policy For Progress and featured on this week’s episode of The Horse Race” a podcast hosted by the MassInc pollster and Politico reporter.
Mr. Kerr was also (for about a decade) the head of Democrats for Education Reform, DFER’s sister organization Education Reform Now (Massachusetts), then Advancing Obama’s Legacy on Charter Schools ballot committee, and is still head of The Welcome Party, Policy for Progress, and Priorities for Progress. They are mostly dark money operations funded by a Privatization Cabal of billionaires who try to use their money to privatize public schools. They heavily favored Andrea Campbell for mayor of Boston and presumably would settle for the consolation prize of Attorney General, with a path to the governor’s office in four to eight years.
These organizations receive a good chunk of their funding from the Walton family of Arkansas. They underwrite about 30%-33% of Education Reform Now’s budget each year. WalMart heirs Jim Walton and Alice Walton provided about 80% of the money behind Advancing Obama’s Legacy on Charter Schools and the remainder was provided by Education Reform Now. Historian Nelson Lichtenstein writes that the Walton Family Foundation is “the single largest source of funding for the ‘school choice’ movement and a powerful advocate of charter schools and voucher initiatives.” (Retail Revolution, 286). The heirs want to privatize public education. That’s the agenda.
Priorities for Progress reveals its donors at OCPF. Top donors in addition to Mr. Kerr include Rick Burnes, Anthony Helies, Charles Ledley, Chuck Longfield—all donors to privatization causes, many with dark money (Longfield shuffled $750,000 to the 2016 school privatization ballot campaign, $650,000 in dark money); plus Keri Lorenzo (Rodrigues), head of Walton front Massachusetts Parents United and Walton-Charles Koch front National Parents Union.
The DFER SuperPac is mostly dark money from Education Reform Now (Waltons and allies). DFER PAC is Kerr, Ledley, a few others.
So yes, the polls in January and August were provided by school privatization interest groups.
Many of the education polls that get released to the media are underwritten by billionaires who wish to promote school privatization (despite the clear rejection at the polls in 2016, by 62%-38%). For example, a recent poll reflecting poorly on the Boston public schools was one of a series done by privatizer Shah Foundation. Amos Hostetter lavished $2,000,000 in dark money into the 2016 privatization campaign. Hostetter underwrites the Barr Foundation:
In 2020 $75,000 of the $150,000 Barr bestowed on Education Reform Now went “to support a Massachusetts public opinion polling project related to deepening policymakers’ and the media’s understanding of education issues during COVID-19.” Barr gave $100,000 to The Education Trust “To support public opinion survey development and communications in the 2020-21 school year.” It also sent $380,000 to the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth in two payments. The first for $80,000 was “To conduct a survey of K-12 parents in Massachusetts on issues related to educational challenges during the coronavirus outbreak” and the second for $300,000 “To support public opinion research in the 2020-2021 school year.” That’s $555,000 in polling in 2020.
Many of these polls have been conducted by MassInc Polling Group.
Want to get a story in the Boston Globe, NBC Boston, CommonWealth Magazine, GBH, Politico? Just put up the money for a poll. (It helps if you are sitting on billions $$$ like the Waltons and Hostetter and they can arrange for it to be tax deductible, if that take some of the sting out). It is free media content, has the veneer of the scientific approach, and polls are clickbait. In addition to the reward of getting the Cabal’s narrative publicized, Walton agent Mr. Kerr is a content provider of free material for media businesses and earns gratitude. The story will usually reveal the polling firm and the sponsor and messaging content from whatever entity Mr. Kerr represents at the moment, but almost never the real money behind the entity and its interest.
Polling is another way for the wealthy to manipulate the media narrative and influence what gets talked about in politics. It’s agenda setting by the Privatization Cabal.
“What wealthy people do is rig the discourse.”—Anand Giridharadas
[Full disclosure: as a (now retired) educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy. My book, Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, is now in print.]